By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Aug 31: The Beijing-appointed 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu (Ch. Gyaincain Norbu), widely criticised as the “fake Panchen,” “Chinese puppet,” and “Chinese Panchen,” recently led a “Three Consciousness Symposium” in Nagchu (Ch. Naqu) Prefecture within the so called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). This event, as reported by Bitter Winter, a magazine dedicated to religious liberty and human rights, marks another step in the Chinese government’s efforts to assert control over Tibetan Buddhism.
While China’s mainstream media covered his visit, they offered scant details on its true purpose. The symposium is part of the ongoing “Three Consciousness Campaign,” initiated in Tibet in 2022. This campaign aims to re-educate Buddhist monks and nuns by promoting national consciousness, citizen consciousness, and the rule of law consciousness. In practice, these programs seek to enforce allegiance to Chinese rule in Tibet and to suppress “separatism” by compelling the monastic community to obey the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Central Committee, and President Xi Jinping without question.
During the symposium, Gyaltsen Norbu urged monks and nuns to distance themselves from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, and to reject “separatist thoughts.” He emphasised the need to promote “national unity” and to adapt Tibetan Buddhism to fit within a socialist framework.
In his keynote address, Norbu called on Tibetan Buddhists to study and implement the resolutions of the 20th National Congress of the CCP. This directive implies that Tibetan religious practitioners must align their spiritual beliefs with the political ideologies of the state, study Buddhism in a way that aligns with contemporary political responsibilities, and accept the “strict governance of religion”—which translates to the United Front’s supervision of religious activities. Additionally, Norbu stressed the importance of Tibetan Buddhism playing a supportive role in CCP-led campaigns.
During his visit to the “Rural Revitalization Nagqu Progress” exhibition, Norbu praised the rapid development achieved under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, attributing this success to the cooperation of people from all ethnic groups who support the Party’s policies. He also called for even closer unity among various ethnic groups under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the Party’s Central Committee.
Following his visit to Nagchu, Gyaltsen Norbu concluded his tour with a visit to Nyingtri City on August 22 before returning to Lhasa on August 28.
Gyaltsen Norbu’s appointment as the 11th Panchen Lama by the Chinese government in 1995 has long been seen as an attempt to control the selection of high-ranking Tibetan religious figures and to diminish the influence of the Dalai Lama. Despite years of efforts by China to gain legitimacy for Norbu among Tibetans, he remains widely unaccepted, with many Tibetans viewing him as lacking true religious authority.
The true 11th Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima, was recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 14, 1995. Days later, Chinese authorities abducted Gendun Choekyi Nyima, and he has not been seen since. For Tibetans, Gendun Choekyi Nyima remains the legitimate Panchen Lama, while Gyaltsen Norbu is seen as merely a figurehead imposed by the CCP, of which he is a member.
One Response
The Chinese communist regimes fetish for reincarnation is as weird and as incongruent as a snake with a head of a mongoose! It sees Tibetan Buddhism as a “feudalistic” entity that is nothing more than an “instrument of exploitation”!!! Owing to this belief they went on a rampage to destroy more than 6000 monasteries and peddled that the Dalai Lama was “running theocratic society” in Tibet!!! Now, they are eating their words by scrambling for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It is obvious, they are doing it SOLELY for political purposes! It has already installed its candidate for the Panchen Lama which Tibetans call Penzue (པཎ་མཛུས་ fake Panchen) Gyaltsen Norbu. In the future, they have plans to put up their candidate for the Dalai Lama as well! The CCP has no morals and has nothing that is sacred for them either. It is an immoral, utterly corrupt and evil to the core for its senseless violence and indifference to the sanctity of human life. It has murdered 80 million innocent lives in the more than seven decades of its evil rule in China and illegally occupied territories like Tibet. Violence is the final arbiter of all its policies whether it’s domestic or international issues. It threatens the people they rule by the Chinese Gestapo and the murderous PLA as we saw on June 4th 1989! It has no qualms in murdering its own people without the slightest concern. It is using intimidatory tactics against those who are fighting against the tyranny of the CCP regime! It has made many enemies because it has destroyed the lives of millions of people in China and other occupied areas like Tibet, East Turkistan, Mongolia and Hong Kong! Therefore, it’s trying to suppress them by all sorts of manners including putting up wanted lists of dissidents with bounties on their head like the wild west films of a bygone age! It passes supposed “laws” to “execute independence minded people of Taiwan” even though it has no jurisdiction over Taiwan. It’s all a sign of its desperation.
The attempt to install puppet Panchen Lama or Dalai Lama’s are another desperate attempt to legitimise its illegal occupation of Tibet. The illegitimate Panchen and Dalai Lama candidates are nothing but pawns in the hands of the CCP to garner support for the colonial rule of occupied Tibet! The CCP wants to force illegitimate Lamas upon the Tibetan people to do their dirty job. This shows the CCP’s perception of the Tibetans as utter fools who can be force-fed with such diabolical trash and that Tibetans will buy them without blinking an eyelid! They are gravely mistaken and the CCP will fail in their attempt to gain even a semblance of legitimacy for their manufactured candidates! The Dalai Lama’s and Panchen Lama’s are revered for their wisdom in Buddhist knowledge and their practice. After prolonged study of the five great treatises གཞུང་ཆེན་བཀའ་པོད་ལྔ་ they have to give examinations to gauge their understanding of the Buddha’s teachings known as the Geshe Examination! After completing these intensive Buddhist learning, they start teaching to the public by travelling the length and breadth of the country. Their only mission is to teach the Dharma to the people, educate them in the Dharma and transmit ancient oral and canonical transmissions to be carried on by the next generation. The more the Lama’s make a dent in the minds of the people, the more they are sought after and the more popular they become! However, there is NO SUCH OPPORTUNITY UNDER THE CCP OCCUPATION for their candidates! The CCP discourages Buddhist teachings and practice as superstition and instead they force them to be indoctrinated with communist ideology which is a discredited ideology that has been rejected by not only Tibetans but even the Chinese people who see it as nothing more than an instrument of oppression and subjugation through unmitigated violence! Therefore, there will be no proper spiritual bond between the Chinese Lama candidates and the general public. They will be living in their imposed seclusion far removed from the people and therefore, they are nothing more than show ponies for the world at large. Communist rule is not supported by people’s consent but imposed by the State apparatus of the Chinese communist Party such as their gestapos, the militia, the secret service known as Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). The CCP has 200 million cameras to keep track of its citizens. It’s a monstrous system of systematic suppression of every freedom by using surveillance as a mechanism to spy on every individual to keep them under wraps! IT IS A DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY WHERE HUMAN BEINGS ARE NO MORE THAN A COMMODITY TO SERVE THE INTERESTS OF THE COMMUNIST OVERLORDS!