The young boy who was abducted as a 6-year-old turned 36 on Friday.
What he does, where he lives or even if he’s still alive isn’t known, thanks to the reticence of the Chinese government, which kidnapped him along with his family and his teacher 30 years ago.
Beijing leaders, ever wary of potential rivals for the Communist Party’s authority, viewed the boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as a possible threat.
Days earlier the Dalai Lama had named him the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual leader in the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetans have long marked his birthday with celebrations held in absentia, and reiterated long-standing requests to Beijing to reveal Gedhun Choekyi Nyima’s fate.
The Panchen Lama’s abduction illustrates the sensitivity of Chinese authorities to other prominent religious figures amid their effort to control Tibetans by suppressing expressions of their Buddhist faith.
The fight over the 11th Panchen Lama is seen as a likely precursor to the battle over who will succeed the 14th Dalai Lama, who turns 90 this year.
China, always wary of opposition to its authority, particularly in the restive Tibetan region, says it can appoint the successor under Chinese law. But the Dalai Lama said, in a new book, that his reincarnation will be born in the “free world,” which he described as outside China.
Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama are reincarnated when they die, and that they have the right to select the religious leaders based on their belief in the principle of rebirth.
