TAR Official Says Gedun Choekyi Nyima Living In His Hometown

January 26, 2006

Vice Governor Wu Jingjie of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has suggested that Gedun Choekyi Nyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama in 1995 as the Panchen Lama, is living in the TAR, according to a Reuters report posted on Phayul.com, a Tibetan news site. "I wish you to believe he is living in his hometown happily," Wu told a group of journalists touring central Tibet on a government-arranged itinerary.

Vice Governor Wu Jingjie of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has suggested that Gedun Choekyi Nyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama in 1995 as the Panchen Lama, is living in the TAR, according to a Reuters report posted on Phayul.com, a Tibetan news site. "I wish you to believe he is living in his hometown happily," Wu told a group of journalists touring central Tibet on a government-arranged itinerary. Vice Governor Wu's rare hint about the family's location has not been independently confirmed. Wu explained the family's isolation since 1995, saying, "His family and himself do not want interference from the outside world." Gedun Choekyi Nyima's home is in Lhari county (Jiali) in the TAR.

After the Dalai Lama announced that Gedun Choekyi Nyima is the Panchen Lama, Chinese authorities took the boy and his parents into custody, keeping them incommunicado in an unknown location since that time. The State Council declared the Dalai Lama's recognition of Gedun Choekyi Nyima "illegal and invalid," and oversaw the installation in late 1995 of another boy from Lhari, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the Panchen Lama. Chinese authorities conduct political education classes in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries and require monks and nuns to endorse the legitimacy of Gyaltsen Norbu or face expulsion.

Vice Governor Wu told the journalists that the Chinese government welcomes dialogue with the Dalai Lama's "private representatives, for example his family," but rejects contact with the Tibetan government-in-exile, according to the Reuters report. "We have never recognized the illegal government of Tibet outside China so there is no such question of dialogue between the central government and the (official) representatives of the Dalai Lama," Wu said. The Dalai Lama's envoys have had four rounds of talks with Chinese officials since dialogue resumed in September 2002. The fourth round, in Bern, Switzerland, at the end of July 2005, was the first to take place outside of China.

Additional information about the Panchen Lama issue and the dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama's representatives is available in the CECC 2004 Annual Report.