The Panchen Lama (Tibetan: པན་ཆེན་བླ་མ་; Chinese: 班禪喇嘛) is the second highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (the sect which controlled western Tibet from the 16th century until the Seventeen Point Agreement). The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning "great scholar", is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit paṇḍita (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great).

The current Panchen Lama

The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (Brtan-'dzin Rgya-mtsho), named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma) as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995 but the government of the People's Republic of China quickly named another child, Gyancain Norbu (Rgyal-mtshan Nor-bu). Shortly afterwards, Gedhun and his entire family vanished. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance and continued absence have led his supporters as well as the western media to refer to him as "the world's youngest political prisoner". Chinese authorities state that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has been taken into protective custody, but there is no reference to what, or whom he must be protected from.

The true present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy: the People's Republic of China asserts it is Qoigyijabu, while the Tibetan Government in Exile maintains it is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima; the latter was arrested by the Chinese government in 1995 and as of 2008 has not been seen in public.

The recognition of Panchen Lamas has always been a matter involving the Dalai Lama . The 10th Panchen Lama himself declared, as cited by an official Chinese review that "according to Tibetan tradition, the confirmation of either the Dalai or Panchen must be mutually recognized. The involvement of China in this affair is seen by some as a political ploy to try to gain control over the recognition of the next Dalai Lama (see below), and to strengthen their hold over the future of Tibet and its governance. China claims however, that their involvement does not break with tradition in that the final decision about the recognition of both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama traditionally rested in the hands of the Chinese emperor.

Relation to the Dalai Lama Lineage

The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa. Furthermore, the search for the late Panchen Lama's reincarnation, or any reincarnation, is a philosophic matter. In the case of the Panchen Lama, the procedures traditionally involve a final selection process by the Dalai Lama. This has been the tradition since the Fifth Dalai lama, Ngawang Lobsang, recognized his teacher as the Panchen (Great Scholar) Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery (Bkra-shis Lhung-po) in Shigatse (Gzhis-ka rtse). With this appointment, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen's three previous incarnations were posthumously recognised as Panchen Lamas. The Fifth Dalai Lama also recognized Panchen Lobsang Yeshe (Blo-bzang Ye-shes) as the Fifth Panchen Lama. The Seventh Dalai Lama recognized the Sixth Panchen Lama, who in turn recognized the Eighth Dalai Lama. Similarly, the Eighth Dalai Lama recognised the Seventh Panchen Lama.

Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, became the most important political and religious figure in Tibet following the 14th Dalai Lama's escape to India in 1959. In April, 1959 the 10th Panchen Lama sent a telegram to Beijing expressing his support for suppressing the 1959 rebellion. “He also called on Tibetans to support the Chinese government.” However, in 1964, he was imprisoned. His situation worsened when the Cultural Revolution began. The Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng wrote in March 1979 a letter denouncing the inhuman conditions of the Chinese Qincheng Prison where the late Panchen Lama was imprisoned. In October 1977, he was released but held under house arrest in Beijing until 1982. In 1979, he married a Han Chinese woman and in 1983 they had a daughter, which was considered controversial for a Gelug lama. In 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama died suddenly in Shigatse, Tibet, at the age of 51, shortly after giving a speech critical of the Chinese neglect for the religion and culture of the Tibetans. His daughter, now a young woman, is Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, better known as "Renji".

List of Panchen Lamas

	Name	Life span	Tibetan/Wylie	PRC transcription	Other transliterations
1.	Khedrup Je	1385–1438	མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ་་ Mkhas-grub Rje,་ མྷས་གྲུབ་དགེལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་ Mkhas-grub Dge-legs Dpal-bzang-po	Kaichub Gêlêg Baisangbo	Khädrup Je, Khedrup Gelek Pelsang, Kedrup Geleg Pelzang, Khedup Gelek Palsang, Khedrup Gelek Pal Sangpo
2.	Sönam Choklang	1438–1505	བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོག་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་་ Bsod-nams Phyogs-glang,་ བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་ Bsod-nams Phyogs-kyi Glang-po	Soinam Qoilang, Soinam Qoigyi Langbo	Sonam Choglang, Soenam Choklang
3.	Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup	1505–1568	དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་དྲུཔ་་ Dben-sa-pa Blo-bzang Don-grub	Wênsaba Lobsang Toinchub	Gyalwa Ensapa, Ensapa Lozang Döndrup, Ensapa Losang Dhodrub
4.	Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten	1570–1662	བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་ Blo-bzang Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan	Lobsang Qoigyi Gyaicain	Losang Chökyi Gyältsän, Lozang Chökyi Gyeltsen, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lobsang Choegyal, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen
5.	Lobsang Yeshe	1663–1737	བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་་ Blo-bzang Ye-shes	Lobsang Yêxê	Lobsang Yeshi, Losang Yeshe
6.	Lobsang Palden Yeshe	1738–1780	བློ་བཟང་གྤལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས་་ Blo-bzang Gpal-ldan Ye-shes	Lobsang Baidain Yêxê	Palden Yeshe, Palden Yeshi
7.	Palden Tenpai Nyima	1782–1853	གྤལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་་ Gpal-ldan Bstan-pa'i Nyi-ma	Dainbai Nyima	Tänpä Nyima, Tenpé Nyima, Tempai Nyima, Tenpey Nyima
8.	Tenpai Wangchuk	1855?–1882	བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་་ Bstan-pa'i Dbang-phyug	Dainbai Wangqug	Tänpä Wangchug, Tenpé Wangchuk, Tempai Wangchuk, Tenpey Wangchuk
9.	Thubten Chökyi Nyima	1883–1937	ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ Thub-bstan Chos-kyi Nyi-ma	Tubdain Qoigyi Nyima	Choekyi Nyima, Thubtän Chökyi Nyima
10.	Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen	1938–1989	བློབཟང་ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་ Blo-bzang Phrin-las Lhun-grub Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan	Lobsang Chinlai Lhünchub Qoigyi Gyaicain	Choekyi Gyaltsen, Chökyi Gyeltsen, Choekyi Gyaltse, Trinley Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lozang Trinlä Lhündrup Chökyi Gyältsän
11.	Gedhun Choekyi Nyima	1989–	དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma	Gêdün Qoigyi Nyima	Gendün Chökyi Nyima, Gendhun Choekyi Nyima
	Qoigyijabu	1990–	ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་་ Chos-kyi Rgyal-po	Qoigyijabu	Choekyi Gyalpo, Chökyi Gyälbo, Gyaincain Norbu, Gyaltsen Norbu

See also

• History of Tibet
• Sakya Pandita

References and footnotes

External links

• Help Find the Panchen Lama of Tibet!, a reward is being offered for information on the whereabouts of the current Panchen Lama.
• Tibet Society UK - The Background To The Panchen Lama from http://www.tibet-society.org.uk/
• China Tibetology No. 03, a series of articles from http://www.tibet.cn/ explaining in detail the Chinese government's position on the search of reincarnations of the Panchen Lama:
• Preface
• The reincarnation of Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism and the administration over Living Buddhas exercised by central governments
• The Grand Living Buddha Reincarnation System in the dGe-lugs-pa Sect and the Central Government Strengthening the Governing of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas
• A Successful Example in Searching and Confirming the Eleventh Panchen Lama Set for the Reincarnation of Grand Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism in a New Historical Condition
• Tibet's missing spiritual guide, a May 2005 article from BBC News
• 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet, a website about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima
• The Search for the Panchen Lama, The non-fictional story of the Panchen Lama's disappearance, written by Isabel Hilton.
• The Dharma King, The Dharma King is a novel about one man's quest to find the reincarnated Panchen Lama and the long buried truth within him.