Dalai Lama’s choice tells of misery

“My life is too complicated to make a movie. They have proposed writing a biography about me but it would have to wait until after I die because some people would be scandalized.”

AFP | Jun 2, 2009

MADRID (AFP) — While the Dalai Lama is on a tour of Europe, a Spanish man who he proclaimed to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader has spoken of his unhappy childhood at a monastery and his decision to abandon the faith.

Osel Hita Torres made world headlines in 1986 when the Dalai Lama recognised him, then aged 14 months, as the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe, who had died in California two years earlier.

He had been brought to see the Dalai Lama in India by his parents and ended up living at a monastery there, where he was only allowed to socialize with others who had been proclaimed reincarnations, until he turned 18.

But even though many Buddhists worshipped him almost as a god, Torres said in a rare interview published over the weekend in Spain that he feels the experience stunted the development of his personality.

“Psychologically, everything affected me very much. I still feel fury inside and, sometimes, when it comes out, it causes me to lose control and I get depressed,” Torres, 24, told daily newspaper El Mundo.

“They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal. It was like living a lie,” added Torres, who now describes himself as a “spiritual scientific agnostic”.

When he was eight, he managed to have a tape recorded message expressing his unhappiness delivered to his mother, who took him away from the Sera monastery.

But Torres said he quickly volunteered to return because of the pressure he felt over being considered to be the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe.

After leaving the monastery for good when he turned 18, he spent a year in Canada followed by six months in Switzerland where he studied philosophy, human rights, art and French.

Torres, who said that for a time he lived at the monastery next to the cabin of actor Richard Gere, who he described as a “great guy, very nice”, is now studying film in Madrid.

He said some aspects of life outside of the monastery really surprised him, such as seeing people kissing in public, and described the bewilderment he felt during his first visit to a nightclub.

“I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, asphyxiated and enclosed in a box full of smoke? This is music? It sounds like noise. It hurts my ears. It seemed like the strangest thing in the world,” he said.

“What is important for me now is to do something that makes me feel useful, to find a direction to put my energy,” he added.

Asked if he would like to make a movie about his life, he said: “No, my life is too complicated to make a movie. They have proposed writing a biography about me but it would have to wait until after I die because some people would be scandalized.”

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since 1959, is the most famous of a lineage of reincarnated spiritual leaders.

The 73-year-old began a visit to Europe on Friday that will take in Denmark, Iceland, Poland, France and the Netherlands.

Tibet’s Panchen Lama, Beijing’s propaganda tool

Jia Qinglin (R), Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, greets the Panchen Lama

AFP | Mar 28, 2009

BEIJING (AFP) — China’s controversial choice as the second highest Tibetan spiritual figure is increasingly being used by Beijing as a tool in its propaganda offensive against the exiled Dalai Lama, say experts.

Rarely seen in public previously, but believed to have been educated in the Chinese capital, the 19-year-old Panchen Lama Friday expressed loyalty to Beijing, in stark contrast to the views of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

“For a long time the Dalai’s separatist clique has ignore the success of Tibet’s development, plotted and planned to ruin Tibet’s social stability and wantonly attacked the policies of the central government,” he said, referring to the Dalai Lama’s exiled Tibetan administration.

The comments made in an interview with China Central Television came as he attended a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of what is officially called “the end of serfdom in Tibet” held at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

“Old Tibet was a theocratic feudal serf society, the ruling class, nobility and clergy rode on the backs of the people and exploited and persecuted them,” he said in the interview.

On Saturday, China will, for the first time, celebrate the end of Tibetan “feudalism,” a day that coincides with the quelling of an anti-Chinese uprising in the Himalayan region 50 years ago.

The Panchen Lama is also scheduled to appear at the opening of the Second World Buddhist Forum in eastern China’s Wuxi city on Saturday, according to state press reports.

During the last forum two years ago, the young monk with an almond-shaped face and small round glasses made his first public appearance, more than 10 years after his controversial enthronement.

Earlier this month, the Dalai Lama, exiled from his homeland for 50 years, accused China of having transformed Tibet into “a hell on earth” and of killing hundreds of thousands of Tibetans during its rule.

But in an essay that appeared in the communist mouthpiece the People’s Daily on Monday, the Panchen Lama expressed full loyalty to the atheist ruling party.

“Facts show that it is only under the leadership of the Communist Party of China that Tibet can enjoy its current prosperity and an even better future,” he wrote.

Born Gyaincain Norbu, the controversial figure was enthroned as the 11th Panchen Lama in a 1995 ceremony overseen by the Communist Party, which had rejected a boy selected by the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama’s choice, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, immediately disappeared from public view and is believed to have been under a form of house arrest ever since.

The 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989 after a tumultuous relationship with China’s communist leaders that alternated between prison and relative freedom.

But even if the new Panchen Lama becomes more high-profile in China, that does not mean he is accepted as a spiritual leader by Tibetans, according to Tibetan scholars outside of China.

In Tibetan temples, it is rare to see images or photographs of him, while those of his predecessor are common.

“He is a piece of propaganda. He is being used by the Beijing government,” said Samten G. Karmay, the Paris-based former head of the Association of International Tibetan Studies.

“The Tibetan population does not recognise him, especially as he is saying the things that fall in with the Communist Party line.”

Although both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama belong to the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, differences between them have existed historically and the communists are not the first to try to take advantage of this, Karmay said.

In the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty tried to play on the antagonism by attempting to make the Panchen Lama an ally.

Beijing’s manipulation of the selection of the Panchen Lama in 1995 could be a sign of what will happen after the death of the current Dalai Lama.

“The Chinese government will try to name someone, but China will have a problem with legitimacy,” said Tsering Shakya, a leading Tibetan historian at the University of British Columbia.

“It is certain that 100 percent of Tibetans will not recognise a child chosen by China as the Dalai Lama. But that won’t matter to Beijing. For the Chinese it is only a question of showing their power.”

Panchen Lama Calls for Support of China’s Communist Party

VOA News | Mar 22, 2009

Beijing’s choice as Tibet’s second-highest spiritual leader has credited the Communist Party for providing the Tibetan people with prosperity and happiness.

The official Xinhua news agency Sunday quoted Gyaltsen Norbu, the 11th Panchen Lama, as saying that under the Chinese Communist Party, Tibet will have an even better future.

In an editorial to be carried in Monday’s People’s Daily newspaper, the 19-year-old cites a line of Buddhist scripture about the significance of good leaders and patriotic people to a country.

Earlier this month, the Panchen Lama, praised the Chinese Communist Party for liberating Tibet from feudal oppression. China’s official Xinhua news agency said the spiritual leader told reporters in Beijing that the Tibetan people should cherish what he called their “prosperity and happy lives.”

Most Tibetans recognize Gendun Choekyi Nyima as the Panchen Lama because he was endorsed by the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government says that young man and his family, who have not been seen in public since 1995, are living a healthy life and do not want to be disturbed.

No Tibet freedom without Communist Party says Panchen Lama

Communist China’s choice as the Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu

AFP | Mar 14, 2009

BEIJING (AFP) — China’s controversial choice as the second highest Tibetan spiritual figure said Sunday that Tibetans would never enjoy human dignity and freedom without the Chinese Communist Party.

The Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, on Sunday visited an exhibition trumpeting the economic and democratic progress brought by communist rule in the 50 years since the end of feudalism in Tibet, state television reported.

The exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising that led to the exile of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s most revered spiritual figure.

Chinese authorities say the beginning of his exile marked the end of serfdom in the mountainous region.

“Facts prove that without the Communist Party of China, over a million serfs would never enjoy human dignity and freedom,” the report quoted the Panchen Lama as saying.

“People living in Tibet should cherish the prosperity and happy lives today, it has not come easy.”

His comments came as Tibetan regions in China remained under tight security during the muted first anniversary of anti-Chinese unrest that Beijing says led to the deaths of 21 people and which it blames on rioters.

According to exile groups, 203 Tibetans were killed — mostly by Chinese troops — during last year’s unrest, which began in Lhasa on March 14 before spreading to other areas of western China with Tibetan populations.

China’s atheist government enthroned Gyaincain Norbu as the Panchen Lama in 1995, rejecting another boy selected by the exiled Dalai Lama in a move that defied long-held Buddhist traditions.

A protester holds a portrait of the Dalai Lama’s choice for Panchen Lama

The Dalai Lama’s choice, six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, immediately disappeared from public view and is believed to have been under a form of house arrest ever since.

The alternate Panchen Lama is rarely seen in public and is believed to be receiving his education in Beijing under close scrutiny from the government.

In Tibetan Buddhist tradition the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama have played alternating roles in the religion’s esoteric reincarnation rituals and the education of each other’s successors.

Exiled Tibetans have refused to accept the authority of the alternate Panchen Lama and have expressed fears that he will be used by the government to select the next Dalai Lama.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951 after sending in troops to “liberate” the region the previous year.