Call on the Australian Government to demand the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

This year marks 30 years since Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was disappeared by the Chinese Government for the ‘crime’ of being recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama. As yet, the Chinese Government has not been held to account for kidnapping a 6-year-old boy, nor for holding him as a political prisoner for 30 years, nor for their interference in Tibetans’ religious practices — interrupting the lineage of reincarnation of the second-highest reincarnate Lama position in Tibetan Buddhism.

Australia Tibet Council calls on the Australian Government to demand the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. We demand that the Australian ...

This year marks 30 years since Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was disappeared by the Chinese Government for the ‘crime’ of being recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama. As yet, the Chinese Government has not been held to account for kidnapping a 6-year-old boy, nor for holding him as a political prisoner for 30 years, nor for their interference in Tibetans’ religious practices — interrupting the lineage of reincarnation of the second-highest reincarnate Lama position in Tibetan Buddhism.

Australia Tibet Council calls on the Australian Government to demand the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. We demand that the Australian Government raise the case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima with the Chinese Government publicly and privately, and that Australia raises his case at the UN and supports efforts to investigate his whereabouts and ensure he is alive and well.

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Call on the Australian Government to demand the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

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Dear Foreign Minister Wong,

I am writing to ask you to take action for Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet, as recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Panchen Lama is the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, after the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama recognised Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama on 14 May 1995.

Days after being recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama, six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents were kidnapped and taken away from their village by Chinese officials. They have been missing ever since.

At the time, 18 May 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was considered the world's youngest political prisoner.

It is now 30 years since Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was disappeared by the Chinese Government for the ‘crime’ of being recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama. As yet, the Chinese Government has not been held to account for kidnapping a 6-year-old boy, nor for holding him as a political prisoner for 30 years, nor for their interference in Tibetans’ religious practices — interrupting the lineage of reincarnation of the second-highest reincarnate Lama position in Tibetan Buddhism.

Background

The Tenth Panchen Lama, Tenzin Tinlay Jigme Choekyi Wangchuk, suddenly passed away on the evening of 28th January 1989, at Tashi Lhunpo, his traditional monastery in Tibet. He was fifty-one years old, with his cause of death undetermined. During his lifetime, he had used his public position to criticise the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

Following his death, a search party was formed to find and recognise the next Panchen Lama. On 14 May 1995, the Dalai Lama announced that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama. Nyima and his family were forcibly disappeared 3 days later.

Six months after the abduction, the Chinese government appointed its own Panchen Lama in a mockery of the ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition of reincarnation. Tibetans refer to the Chinese government’s appointee as ‘Panchen Zuma’ or ‘fake Panchen’.

I ask you, as the Foreign Minister, to raise his case with China.

The kidnapping of the legitimate 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and the installation of the CCP-appointed fake Panchen shows the lengths the CCP will go to both disrupt and destroy Tibetan Buddhism. The CCP threats to Tibetan Buddhism are only growing, as the CCP have exposed their long-term plans to control the future succession of the Dalai Lama by appointing their own approved and controllable “leaders”.

I call on the Australian Government to:

- Demand the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.

- Raise the case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima with the Chinese Government publicly and privately.

- Raise the case of the 11th Panchen Lama at the UN and join with other governments to take action to investigate his whereabouts and ensure he is alive and well.

I join with the Australia Tibet Council to demand that the Australian Government takes the threat to the future succession of the Dalai Lama seriously and acts to support religious freedom by adopting a policy that Australia “will only recognise a future Dalai Lama chosen by Tibetan people using traditional Tibetan Buddhist processes, without any interference from the Chinese government.”

Thirty years is too long for such an injustice to continue – I ask that you, as our Foreign Minister, take action today.

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