Namgyel, 1938–1989), like the fourteenth Dalai Lama,
Bstan ’dzin rgya mtsho (Tenzin Gyatso, b. 1935), was
born in ’A mdo, the far northeastern region of Tibet.
The tenth Panchen Lama was educated traditionally
and was given a position in the Chinese government.
In 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India, the Chi-
nese government urged the Panchen Rinpoche to as-
sume the Dalai Lama’s position, but he declined to do
so. He further antagonized the increasingly repressive
Communist China government in 1962 with a seventy-
thousand-character petition detailing the appalling
conditions in Tibet and asking for an end to persecu-
tion and a genuine acceptance of religious freedom.
This petition, later published as A Poisoned Arrow: The
Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama,eventually led
to his imprisonment for ten years. After his release
from prison in February 1981, the Panchen Lama was
reinstated; until his death in Gzhi ka rtse in 1989, he
worked with the central and regional authorities for
the betterment of Tibet. Tibetans consider the tenth
Panchen Lama a great patriot, and pictures of him,
which are allowed by the Chinese government, are
widely found.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, two
claimants vie for the title of eleventh Panchen Lama.
In May 1995 in Dharmasala, India, the fourteenth
Dalai Lama announced that a six-year-old boy from
Tibet, Dge ’dun chos kyi nyi ma, was the reincarna-
tion of the Panchen Lama. He had named the boy cho-
sen by Bya bral (Chadrel) Rin po che, a religious official
from Bkra bzhis lhun po and the head of the commit-
tee originally constituted by the Chinese government
to search for the Panchen Lama’s reincarnation. To
demonstrate its sole authority over important Tibetan
institutions, China repudiated the choice and later that
year declared another boy, Rgyal mtshan nor bu
(Gyaltsen Norbu), a six-year-old from Hla ri ri in Nag
chu in northeastern Tibet, to be the true Panchen
Lama. Since 1996 Dge ’dun chos kyi nyi ma and his
family have been detained despite the efforts of the in-
ternational community to secure their release.See also:Lama; TibetBibliography
Goldstein, Melvyn. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951:
Demise of the Lamaist State.Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1989.
Panchen Lama X. A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Report of the
10th Panchen Lama.London: Tibet Information Network,- Available online at http://www.tibetinfo.co.uk/pl-opening
.htm.
Richardson, Hugh, and Snellgrove, David. A Cultural History of
Tibet.London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1968.
Smith, E. Gene. “Introduction.” In The Autobiography of the
First Panchen Lama Blo-bzang-chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan,ed.
Ngawang Gelek Demo. Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, 1969.
GARETHSPARHAM
PARAMARTHAParamartha (Zhendi; 499–569) was one of the most in-
fluential translators of Buddhist philosophical texts in
China. Born Kulanatha in Ujjain in north central In-
dia to a brahmin family, Paramartha traveled in 545 toPARAMARTHA
In 1995 the Dalai Lama, in his Indian exile, announced that a
boy named Dge ’dun chos kyi nyi ma was the new Panchen Lama.
China, asserting its authority, repudiated the choice and later de-
clared another boy to be the true Panchen Lama. Here the Chi-
nese nominee, six-year-old Rgyal mtshan nor bu (Gyaltsen Norbu),
is escorted into the Xihuang Monastery in Beijing in 1996.
AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.