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World Tibet Network News Thursday, October 3, 1996

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1. Peking's poison fails to touch Tibetan hearts (Independent)

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Independent - London
3 October 1996

China's attempts to foist its Panchen Lama (far right) on the Buddhists
have led monks to rally to the Dala Lama's choice (right), writes Michael
Dempsey

Shigatse. Tibet - In the markets of Tibet. it is possible to buy a gold
tooth. Displayed in glass cases, the teeth are arranged to-gether like a
Buddha's enigmatic smile. Buying a gold tooth is not for vanity but for
protection. If the gold turns black in your mouth it means your companions
are trying to poison you.

Poisoning has traditionally been J way of settling scores in the high
Himalayas, and those Tibetans who can afford it like to flash a little
gold. Lately, it is not just the Tibetans who are worried about poisoning
but the Chinese, too.

When the Chinese last No-vember enthroned a six-year-old Tibetan boy as an
alternative spiritual leader to the exiled Dalai Lama, they misread
Ti-betan outrage over this move. The boy known as the Panchen Lama. is
supposed to reside at the monastery of Tashilhunpo, in Shigatse, 120 miles
west of Lhasa. But the Chinese are so worried about threats to the boy's
life that in February he was moved secretly to a safe house in Peking,
Tibetan activists said.

Somewhere else in Peking there is a second Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama,
from his exile home in Dharamsala, India, undertook a mystical search to
find the reincarnation of the last Panchen Lama. The Chinese Communists
were also madly hunting for the same boy.

But when the Dalai Lama in March 1995 announced that he had found the
Panchen Lama who, like the Dalai Lama is con-sidered by Tibetans to be a
living god, the Chinese changed strategy. First they arrested the Dalai
Lama's boy, Chedun Choekyi Nyima, and his parents. Then the Communists held
a lottery between several candi-dates in which their boy was chosen. Most
Tibetans think this was a fraud and revere the Dalai Lama's choice.

Exiled Tibetan officials are worried that the Chinese may have locked up
the boy consid-ered by most Tibetans as the true Panchen Lama in a
psy-chiatric hospital. Only a month ago the Chinese admitted in Geneva for
the first time that the Dalai Lama's choice of Panchen Lama was being held
with his parents in "protective custody". The Chinese said they feared the
boy might be kidnapped by Tibetan "separatists".

In Tashilhunpo dissent still smoulders. Only two of the monastery's many
shrines dis-played portraits of the Chinese boy. One of these shrines had
an 85ft gilded Buddha. Near its feet I saw a photograph of the new Panchen
Lama. The monk dismissed my question with smile. "Oh, that?" he replied.
"That's the Peking Panchen Lama."

In trying to foist their Panchen Lama on the Tibetans, the Chi-nese have
only succeeded in heightening resistance to their rule. One resident of
Lhasa said: "Nobody believes in the Chinese Panchen Lama. The Chinese are
afraid to bring the boy out in public. or even keep him here in Tibet. If
they thought they could replace the Dalai Lama with him in Tibetans'
hearts, it isn't working." Throughout Tibetan monas-teries, thousands of
Communist cadres have been at work over the past two months trying to
coerce the monks and nuns to sign pledges rejecting the Dalai Lama and
accepting the Chi-nese's Panchen Lama.

In Drepung monastery, out-side Lhasa, where more than 180 Communist
"re-educators" are encamped, they brought their own cooks. It is thought
they were wary of the monks' cuisine. In protest against these daily
harangues, most of the Ti-betan clergy are refusing to sign the oaths. At
least 10 monks have been arrested over the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, rumours contin-ue to spread through Tibet's hamlets and high,
cloud-swept plateaux. Even without poison, the health of the Chinese
pretender is supposed to be failing. Some Tibetans also swear that the
boy's parents, both Com-munist cadres, were struck by a crisis of
conscience and have ap-proached the Chinese leader-ship requesting that
their son be allowed to step down. These may just be wild tales. But they
illustrate how deep Tibetan resentment runs against the Chinese, who
invaded this Himalayan kingdom in 1951.

Tibetan exiles suspect that the last Panchen Lama, who died suddenly in
1989 after spending a dozen years under house ar-rest, may have been
poisoned by the Chinese. Shortly before his death, the Panchen Lama had
sharply criticised the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Tibetans believe that a
high lama. after death, takes on another re-birth to continue his Buddhist
teachings in an unbroken line. The Panchen Lama had never bothered with a
gold tooth.

For Tibetans, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama are their twin spiritual
poles. The door of almost every Tibetan farmhouse is painted with a sun and
moon, symbolising the country's two spiritual leaders. The Chinese attempts
to pull the Tibetans into their orbit by tampering with the Panchen Lama's
reincarnation have only made them more enemies.

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Articles in this Issue:

1. Peking's poison fails to touch Tibetan hearts (Independent)
2. This document damns China over Tibet (Guardian)
3. Microsoft - Issued instructions on removing offensive Chinese slogans (WSJ)
4. Educational plans for Tibet slammed (UPI)
5. Tibet to establish schools in every town -report (Reuter)
6. Stocks stir capitalism in Tibet (Reuter)
7. Tibet Jinzhu to raise 76.2 mln yuan from issue (Reuter)

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