Panchen Lama visits temple

THE boy chosen by the Chinese government as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama was greeted warmly by dozens of monks when he visited Tibet’s most sacred temple, giving rare publicity to one of his public appearances.

State television showed Gyaltsen Norbu entering the Jokhang Temple dressed in crimson and yellow robes and escorted on either side by monks holding his hands.

Beijing installed Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 after rejecting another boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, the religion’s exiled leader and one most reviled by the Chinese government.

The Panchen Lama ranks second to the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism’s dominant Gelugpa sect.

The 10th Panchen Lama openly criticised China’s policies in Tibet in 1962 and was imprisoned for years before dying in mysterious circumstances in 1988.