He did everything in his political capacity to improve the lives of the Tibetan people. ![]() When he was reinstated as Vice-chairman of the National People’s Congress, he traveled extensively in Tibet to preserve the Tibetan language, culture, and religion. It was only in 1978, two years after the end of Mao’s failed cultural revolution that he was freed. There is little doubt that he spent all his life improving the dignity and success of Tibetans, improving their lives by enhancing their access to religious freedom, and modern education, and reforming Buddhism through authority bestowed on him by the Chinese communist government.Ħth Gungthang Rinpoche, another high Tibetan lama who spent considerable years in Chinese jail and compatriot of Panchen lama in prison wrote in his biography, seeing Panchen Rinpoche's scars and wounds from beating in prison, moved him to tears. “Panchen Lama was someone who held firm conviction to fight for the truth”. Dalai Lama during the event said “In person, the 10th Panchen Lama is an extraordinarily fearless Tibetan who showed unwavering courage to work for the general cause of Tibet and its people,” the Dalai Lama said. His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s speech at the 20th death anniversary of the Panchen Lama validly sums up the true character of the man. It was only after his unfortunate, mysterious, and unceremonious end to life in the Tashi Lhunpo monastery that people became more sympathetic and earned him the tallest Tibetan Lama in Tibet to work for Tibet. His work in a period of limited information, and China’s heavy curtailment of the free flow of information from Tibet had made him a man of an enigma. Panchen Lama's commitment to work within the Chinese communist government framework to uplift the plight of the Tibetans earned him a mixed reputation among a few Tibetans. In 1968, he was formally imprisoned and released only in October 1977. ![]() In August 1966, the cultural revolution Red Guard tortured and humiliated him. His plight under house arrest deteriorated during the cultural revolution. Subsequently, he was placed under house arrest in Beijing. Mao's criticism and Panchen Lama's outright disapproval of the policy of the Chinese communist government in Tibet subjected him to Thamzing (struggle session) and he was ousted from the Preparatory Committee of the TAR. During a politburo meeting, Mao Zedong criticized his petition and denounced leaders who were supportive of the changes Panchen Lama wrote in his petition. Mao Zedong called his petition ‘A poisoned arrow’. The first major criticism of China’s repressive policy from Panchen Lama came in the form of the 70,000-Character petition, submitted to the Chinese government in 1962 to China’s Premier Zhou Enlai, denouncing China’s failed policy, the prevalence of mass starvation, imprisonment of Tibetan and large cultural and religious destruction. His political authority and influence, from the Qing Dynasty to the current Communist government have used divide and rule policy in Tibet, much like the British government to create dissent and disharmony, they have used his authority to rubber-stamp its illegal occupation of Tibet and undermine the influence of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, only to prove futile in their pursuit. Panchen Lama is the second most important spiritual leader of Tibet, second only to the Dalai Lama. Almost from the time of his birth, he was caught in the politics of China’s ambitions toward Tibet and Tibet’s stubborn resistance to the Chinese political game aimed at undermining the authority of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government. The Tenth Panchen Lama, Panchen Lobsang Trinley Lhundrup Choekyi Gyaltsen, was born in 1938 in the village of Karang Bidho in Amdo. ![]() Patriotic, fearless, with unflinching faith in the Dalai Lama, honest, and committed to the cause of Tibet, he did unprecedented work in the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion. Previous Panchen Lama spent his entire life in the interest of Tibet. ![]() Like the current Panchen Lama, who is the world's youngest political prisoner at age 7, the previous Panchen was no stranger to his times in jail. 25th April 2023, marked the 34th birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedun Choekyi Nyima, who has remained till now, missing for 28 years, after the Chinese government kidnapped him and took him to an undisclosed location.
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