(TibetanReview.net, Apr26’25) – As China continues to keep in hiding the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima in defiance of decades-long global demands for access to him, including from the United Nations, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have raised calls for his immediate release on his 36th birthday on Apr 25, while urging China for immediate disclosure of his whereabouts. In Dharamshala, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) of the exile Tibetans has launched a month-long awareness campaign to highlight the issue.
The Chinese government abducted the 11th Panchen Lama, with his family, on May 17, 1995, at six years of age, after the Dalai Lama announced his formal recognition three days earlier of the then six-year-old boy as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama. It installed another boy, Gyaincain Norbu, in his place within the same year.
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has not been seen or heard from ever since. China insists he does not wish to be disturbed, has now finished college and started working, and is leading a normal life. But there is no evidence to support any of these bald claims.
To mark the sombre anniversary, several MEPs publicly displayed solidarity by holding placards that read: “The 11th Panchen Lama turns 36 on 25 April 2025. But where is he? China is answerable to the world,” said the CTA on its Tibet.net website Apr 25.
The MEPs have been photographed at different locations holding those placards.
The CTA statement said the MEPs’ action was part of international voices urging the Chinese government to reveal the truth and allow the world to know the fate of Tibet’s ‘Stolen Child’.
The CTA also said, in another Tibet.net statement Apr 25, that its awareness program will be carried out from Apr 25, the disappeared Panchen Lama’s birthday, through May 17, marking the 30th year of his abduction. It said the program will be an urgent initiative to raise critical awareness regarding the unprecedented three-decade disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama.
“This public engagement effort seeks to create awareness among the public to urge international community to pressure the Chinese government to disclose verifiable information concerning his current well-being and whereabouts,” the statement said.
The inaugural event was held in the Tibet Museum’s Auditorium, located within the precinct of the CTA, with a talk on “Legacy of the 10th Panchen Lama and the Circumstances Surrounding the Enforced Disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama,” delivered by Dr Tsewang Topla, Senior Lecturer at Sarah College.
Weekly events will be organised, including expert talks every Friday, and Documentary film screenings every Wednesday in The Tibet Museum auditorium.
The program will conclude with an elocution contest on May 17 at the Tibetan Children’s Village School, Upper Dharamshala, featuring participants from five Tibetan schools in and around Dharamshala, speaking on various topics related to the legacy of the 10th Panchen Lama as well as on the enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama.