(TibetanReview.net, Apr25’19) – Despite China’s sporadic claims that he was attending school and leading a normal life, no one has seen or heard from the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima since May 17, 1995, the day Beijing took him away as a six-year-old boy and rendered him disappeared ever since. A special forensic work of art commission by a Tibet group has now brought out what the now 30-year-old second most prominent religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism might look like.
Commissioned by the International Tibet Network’s Political Prisoners Campaign Working Group for a film titled “Where is Panchen Lama”, and created by specialist forensic artist Tim Widden, it was presented by the BBC in on their prime time “One Show” channel.
The Panchen Lamas and the Dalai Lamas play a significant role in the recognition of each other’s reincarnation when they are in a position to do so, although it is neither mandatory nor indispensable.
The Dalai Lama formally proclaimed his recognition of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995. China responded by disappearing him and his family three days later and installed another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as its 11th Panchen Lama in a deliberate rebuff.
China has not presented even a picture of Gedhun Choekyi Nima while suggesting he was alive and leading a normal life.
Meanwhile, here is another possible image of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima posted on the rfa.org website Arp 23 and depicted in cartoon Rebel Pepper:
Earlier this year, China presented a Feb 10 video which featured a man said to be the prominent Uyghur musician Abdurehim Heyit. It said the man was in “good health” after the Turkish government raised the issue of his rumoured death in a labour camp at the highest level.
Perhaps it is high for a similar act on the11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima?