Panchen Lama

Khedrup Je, 1st Panchen Lama

The Panchen Lama (Tibetan: པན་ཆེན་བླ་མ; Wylie: Pan-chen Bla-ma, simplified Chinese: 班禅喇嘛/班禅额尔德尼; traditional Chinese: 班禪喇嘛/班禪額爾德尼) is the highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (the sect which controlled western Tibet from the 16th century until the imposition of Chinese sovereignty in 1951). The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning "great scholar", is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit paṇḍita (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great).

The Panchen Lama traditionally lived in Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse.

Contents

The current Panchen Lama

The present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy: the People's Republic of China asserts it is Qoigyijabu (Gyancain Norbu), while the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (Bstan-'dzin Rgya-mtsho), named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima on May 14, 1995. The latter vanished from public eye shortly after being named. Chinese authorities state that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has been taken into protective custody, but there is no information regarding from what, or from whom, he must be protected, where he is being held, or under what conditions. A controversy also existed between the Tibetan government and supporters of Chökyi Gyaltsen during the recognition of the 10th Panchen Lama.

The recognition of Panchen Lamas has always been a matter involving the Dalai Lama [1][2]. The 10th Panchen Lama himself declared, as cited by an official Chinese review that "according to Tibetan tradition, the confirmation of either the Dalai or Panchen must be mutually recognized."[3] The involvement of China in this affair is seen by some as a political ploy to try to gain control over the recognition of the next Dalai Lama (see below), and to strengthen their hold over the future of Tibet and its governance. China claims however, that their involvement does not break with tradition in that the final decision about the recognition of both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama traditionally rested in the hands of the Chinese emperor. For instance, after 1792, the Golden Urn was used in selecting the 10th, 11th and 12th Dalai Lamas.[4]

Relation to the Dalai Lama Lineage

The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility or the monk-regent for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama[5] and vice versa. Furthermore, the search for the late Panchen Lama's reincarnation, or any reincarnation, is a philosophic matter. In the case of the Panchen Lama, the procedures traditionally involve a final selection process by the Dalai Lama. This has been the tradition since the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang, recognized his teacher Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen as the Panchen (Great Scholar) Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery (Bkra-shis Lhung-po) in Shigatse (Gzhis-ka rtse). With this appointment, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen's three previous incarnations were posthumously recognised as Panchen Lamas. The Fifth Dalai Lama also recognized Panchen Lobsang Yeshe (Blo-bzang Ye-shes) as the Fifth Panchen Lama. The Seventh Dalai Lama recognized the Sixth Panchen Lama, who in turn recognized the Eighth Dalai Lama. Similarly, the Eighth Dalai Lama recognised the Seventh Panchen Lama.[6]

Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, became the most important political and religious figure in Tibet following the 14th Dalai Lama's escape to India in 1959. In April, 1959 the 10th Panchen Lama sent a telegram to Beijing expressing his support for suppressing the 1959 rebellion. “He also called on Tibetans to support the Chinese government.” [7] However, in 1964, he was imprisoned.[8] His situation worsened when the Cultural Revolution began. The Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng wrote in March 1979 a letter denouncing the inhumane conditions of the Chinese Qincheng Prison where the late Panchen Lama was imprisoned.[9] In October 1977, he was released but held under house arrest in Beijing until 1982. In 1979, he married a Han Chinese woman and in 1983 they had a daughter,[10] which is not unusual as several Gelug high lamas (Gelek Rinpoche in the US and Dagyab Rinpoche in Germany, among others) have chosen a layman's lifestyle, both inside China and in exile; also, the 6th Dalai Lama, also a Gelugpa, renounced his monk vows and led not only a layman's but a playboy's lifestyle, but still is highly revered by Tibetans. In 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama died suddenly in Shigatse, Tibet, at the age of 51, shortly after giving a speech critical of the Chinese neglect for the religion and culture of the Tibetans.[11] His daughter, now a young woman, is Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, better known as "Renji".[12]

Lineage of the Panchen Lamas

In the lineage of the Tibetan Panchen Lamas there were considered to be four Indian and three Tibetan incarnations of Amitabha Buddha before Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, who is recognised as the 1st Panchen Lama. The lineage starts with Subhuti, one of the original disciples of Gautama Buddha. Gö Lotsawa is considered to be the first Tibetan incarnation of Amitabha Buddha in this line.[13][14]

List of Panchen Lamas

Name Life span Tibetan/Wylie PRC transcription Other transliterations
1. Khedrup Je 1385–1438[15] མཁས་གྲུབ་
Mkhas-grub Rje,་
གྲུབ་དགེལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།
Mkhas-grub Dge-legs Dpal-bzang-po		 Kaichub Gêlêg Baisangbo Khädrup Je, Khedrup Gelek Pelsang, Kedrup Geleg Pelzang, Khedup Gelek Palsang, Khedrup Gelek Pal Sangpo
2. Sönam Choklang 1438–1505[15] བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོག་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་་
Bsod-nams Phyogs-glang,་
བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་
Bsod-nams Phyogs-kyi Glang-po		 Soinam Qoilang,
Soinam Qoigyi Langbo		 Sonam Choglang, Soenam Choklang
3. Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup 1505–1568[15] དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་དྲུཔ་་
Dben-sa-pa Blo-bzang Don-grub		 Wênsaba Lobsang Toinchub Gyalwa Ensapa, Ensapa Lozang Döndrup, Ensapa Losang Dhodrub
4. Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten 1570–1662 བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་
Blo-bzang Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan		 Lobsang Qoigyi Gyaicain Losang Chökyi Gyältsän, Lozang Chökyi Gyeltsen, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lobsang Choegyal, Losang Chögyan
5. Lobsang Yeshe 1663–1737 བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་་
Blo-bzang Ye-shes		 Lobsang Yêxê Lobsang Yeshi, Losang Yeshe
6. Lobsang Palden Yeshe 1738–1780 བློ་བཟང་གྤལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས་་
Blo-bzang Gpal-ldan Ye-shes		 Lobsang Baidain Yêxê Palden Yeshe, Palden Yeshi
7. Gedun Choekyi Nyima 1782–1853 དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ།
Gpal-ldan Bstan-pa'i Nyi-ma		 Dainbai Nyima Tänpä Nyima, Tenpé Nyima, Tempai Nyima, Tenpey Nyima
8. Tenpai Wangchuk 1855?–1882 བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་་
Bstan-pa'i Dbang-phyug		 Dainbai Wangqug Tänpä Wangchug, Tenpé Wangchuk, Tempai Wangchuk, Tenpey Wangchuk
9. Thubten Chökyi Nyima 1883–1937 ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་
Thub-bstan Chos-kyi Nyi-ma		 Tubdain Qoigyi Nyima Choekyi Nyima, Thubtän Chökyi Nyima
10. Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen 1938–1989 བློབཟང་ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་
ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་
Blo-bzang Phrin-las Lhun-grub Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan		 Lobsang Chinlai Lhünchub Qoigyi Gyaicain Choekyi Gyaltsen, Chökyi Gyeltsen, Choekyi Gyaltse, Trinley Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lozang Trinlä Lhündrup Chökyi Gyältsän
11. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima[16] 1989– དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་
Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma		 Gêdün Qoigyi Nyima Gendün Chökyi Nyima, Gendhun Choekyi Nyima
Gyancain Norbu[16] 1990– ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་་
Chos-kyi Rgyal-po		 Qoigyijabu Choekyi Gyalpo, Chökyi Gyälbo, Gyaincain Norbu, Gyaltsen Norbu

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ et :Ya Hanzhang, Biographies of the Tibetan Spiritual Leaders Panchen Erdenis. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1987. pg 350.
  2. ↑ When the sky fell to earth
  3. ↑ Panchen-lama. 1988. "On Tibetan Independence." China Reconstructs (now named China Today) (January): Vol. 37, No. 1. pp 8–15.
  4. ↑ Goldstein 1989
  5. ↑ Kapstein (2006), p. 276
  6. ↑ Appeal For Chatral Rinpoche's Release, from the website of "The Office of Tibet, the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London"
  7. ↑ Lee Feigon, Demystifying Tibet, page 163.
  8. ↑ Exploring Chinese History :: East Asian Region :: Tibet
  9. ↑ Excerpts from Qincheng: A Twentieth Century Bastille, published in Exploration, March 1979
  10. ↑ BUDDHA'S DAUGHTER: A YOUNG TIBETAN-CHINESE WOMAN
  11. ↑ "Panchen Lama Poisoned arrow". BBC. 2001-10-14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A644320. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
  12. ↑ Hilton, Isabel (March 29, 2004). "The Buddha's Daughter: Interview with Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo". The New Yorker. 
  13. ↑ Stein 1972, p. 84
  14. ↑ Das, Sarat Chandra. Contributions on the Religion and History of Tibet (1970), p. 82. Manjushri Publishing House, New Delhi. First published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LI (1882).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 The title Panchen Lama was conferred posthumously on the first two Panchen Lamas.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The Tibetan government-in-exile under the 14th Dalai Lama recognizes Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama; the government of the People's Republic of China recognizes Qoigyijabu as the 11th Panchen Lama.

References

External links

Panchen Lamas
Khedrup Je | Sönam Choklang | Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup | Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen | Lobsang Yeshe | Lobsang Palden Yeshe | Palden Tenpai Nyima | Tenpai Wangchuk | Thubten Chökyi Nyima | Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen | Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (CTA) / Gyaincain Norbu (PRC)
Khedrup Je, 1st Panchen Lama
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