Panchen Lama
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The Panchen Lama (often transliterated as Pänchen Lama) or the Panchen Erdeni, is the one of the two highest ranking lamas (together with the Dalai Lama) in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) School of Tibetan Buddhism (the school which controlled Tibet from the 16th century until the Communist takeover). 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), = Mahapandita, 'Great Scholar',[1] but the Fifth Dalai Lama appointed his tutor Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten head of Tashilhunpo Monastery and exclusively reserved the title Panchen for him,[2] and this title has continued to be given to his successors and, posthumously, to his predecessors starting with Khedrup Je.
There is a controversy about who is the true present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama: the People's Republic of China asserts it is Qoigyijabu, while the Tibetan Government in Exile maintains it is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was arrested at the age of six years by the Chinese in 1995. He then became the world's youngest political prisoner.
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[edit] 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. In the case of the Panchen Lama, the religious 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. [1]
Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, was an important political figure in Tibet following the 14th Dalai Lama's escape to India in 1959. He was enthroned on June 11, 1949 in Amdo (Qinghai) under the auspice of Chinese officials after the KMT administration approved the selection of the reincarnation of the 9th Panchen Lama. [3] In 1954, he was elected as the vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. However, during the Cultural Revolution in 1968 he was imprisoned; in 1977, he was released but held under house arrest in Beijing until 1982. In 1983, he married a Chinese woman and had a daughter, highly controversial behavior 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 occupation. His daughter, now a young woman, is Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, better known as "Renji." Although some organizations have criticized the 10th Panchen Lama as a Chinese puppet (or worse), most scholars (and the 14th Dalai Lama) believe that he did the best that he could to help his people in an impossible situation.
[edit] 11th Panchen Lama
Following the unexpected death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989, the search for his reincarnation quickly became mired in political controversy. Chadrel Rinpoche, the head of the search committee, was able to secretly communicate with the Dalai Lama. However, after the Dalai Lama announced Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the new Panchen Lama, Chinese authorities arrested Chadrel Rinpoche, who was replaced with Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen. Sengchen had been a political opponent of the previous Panchen Lama. The new search committee decided to ignore the Dalai Lama's announcement and choose the Panchen Lama from a list of finalists, which did not include Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, by drawing lots from the Golden Urn. Gyancain Norbu was announced as the search committee's choice on November 11, 1995.
The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima are unknown. The Government of Tibet in Exile claims that he and his family continue to be political prisoners, and has termed him the "youngest political prisoner in the world". The Chinese government claims that he is attending school and leading a normal life somewhere in China, and that his whereabouts are kept undisclosed to protect him.[4]
[edit] List of Panchen Lamas
Traditionally, there were considered to be four Indian and three Tibetan incarnations before Khedrup Je, starting with Subhuti, one of the original disciples of Gautama Buddha.[5][6] Then came Manjushrikirti, Bhavaviveka, Abhayakaragupta, Gö Lotsawa (the first Tibetan incarnation), Sakya Pandita and Yungtön Dorjepel.
| name | life span | Tibetan/Wylie | PRC transcription | other English spellings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Khedrup Je | 1385–1438¹ | 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 | 1438–1505¹ | 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 | 1505–1568¹ | 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 | 1938–1989² | 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 / Qoigyijabu² | 1989– / 1990– | དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma / ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་་ Chos-kyi Rgyal-po | Gêdün Qoigyi Nyima / Qoigyijabu | Gendün Chökyi Nyima, Gendhun Choekyi Nyima / Choekyi Gyalpo, Chökyi Gyälbo, Gyaincain Norbu, Gyaltsen Norbu |
Remarks:
¹ The title Panchen Lama was conferred posthumously on the first three Panchen Lamas. There is some dispute about the numbering system. Hugh Richardson maintains that the Tibetans regard Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten as the First Panchen Lama (he was certainly the first to be given this title in his lifetime - by the Fifth Dalai Lama), while supporters of the Panchen Lama, including the Chinese, make him the Fourth Panchen Lama "to put him more on a level with the Dalai Lama."[7] R. A. Stein reckons that Tibetans use the higher number, while European works use the lower, based on Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten as being the First Panchen Lama.[8] Here we have used the higher numbering system, where the first three Panchen Lamas were given their titles posthumously, as this seems to be the most commonly used system nowadays.
² The present incarnation of the Panchen Lama is disputed. The Dalai Lama recognises Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Chinese government recognises Gyaicain Norbu as the incarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama. Exile Tibetan sources allege that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was kidnapped by the Chinese government.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Tucci, Giuseppe. (1980). The Religions of Tibet, pp. 41-42. Paperback Reprint (1988): University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. ISBN 0-520-03836-8 (coth); ISBN 0-520-06348-1 (pbk).
- ^ "The Institution of the Dalai Lama", by R. N. Rahul Sheel in The Tibet Journal, Vol. XIV No. 3. Autumn 1989, p. 32, n. 1
- ^ http://www.tibet-society.org.uk/pbackground.html
- ^ Xizang-zhiye April 27, 2005
- ^ Stein, R. A. Tibetan Civilization, (1972) p. 84. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-0847-0901-7.
- ^ Das, Sarat Chandra. Contributions on the Religion and History of Tibet (1970), pp. 81-103. Manjushri Publishing House, New Delhi. First published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LI (1882)
- ^ Richardson, Hugh E. (1984). Tibet and its History. Second Edition, Revised and Updated, p. 55. Shambhala. Boston & London. ISBN 0-87773-376-7 (pbk)
- ^ Stein, R. A. (1972) Tibetan Civilization, p. 88. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7 (pbk)
[edit] External links
- Tibet Society UK - The Background To The Panchen Lama
- BBC News article - "Tibet's missing spiritual guide"
An article from "China Tibetology" Nr. 3, published in English, with the title "An example for posterity: Celebrating the Seventh Anniversary of the search for and confirmation of the Eleventh Panchen"; it explains 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
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