(TibetanReview.net, Sep13’23) – In keeping with China’s appropriation of all things uniquely Tibetan as Chinese and the ongoing Sinicization campaign, China-imposed 11th Panchen Lama Gyaltsen Norbu has called Tibetan medicine a treasure in Chinese culture as he concluded a three-month tour of Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
He is expected to play a key role in China’s move to install its own 15th Dalai Lama despite the fact that the current Dalai Lama has made it clear his reincarnation would not take place in a Chinese controlled territory so long as the Tibet issue remained unsolved.
Continuing his prolonged trip to different parts of Tibetan territories under Chinese rule, Gyaltsen Norbu has concluded on Sep 12 a three-month tour of Tibet’s capital Lhasa, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency Sep 12.
The report described his tour as of Buddhist and social activities.
It said that during his tour in Lhasa, “Panchen Rinpoche” visited several monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibet Buddhism Academy, where he held prayer meetings and expounded on the Buddhist sutras.
He has visited the regional hospital of traditional Tibetan medicine and a tech company making health products, among other locations.
“Traditional Tibetan medicine is a treasure in Chinese culture, and it is the responsibility of our generation to inherit and carry forward this unique traditional culture,” the report quoted him as saying at the hospital on Jul 28.
The report said “Panchen Rinpoche,” a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, and president of the association’s Tibet branch, had arrived in Lhasa on Jun 18.
Before that he had toured Gyalthang (Shangri-La, Chinese: Xianggelila) County in Yunnan province; Lithang (Litang), Bathang (Batang), and Dhapa (Daba) counties in Sichuan province; and Chamdo, Jomda, and Markham (Mangkang) counties in Chamdo City, Tibet Autonomous Region.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts or, indeed, the very fate of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, recognized and proclaimed by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama way back in 1995, continues to remain one of China’s best kept secrets.