Panchen Lama

Panchen Lama In Tibetan Buddhism, religious leader who is second only in importance to the Dalai Lama. In 1923, the ninth Panchen Lama fled to China because of disagreements with the Dalai Lama. In 1938, Bskal-bzang Tshe-brtan, a boy of Tibetan parentage, was born in China and later hailed by the Chinese government as the 10th Panchen Lama. In 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India, the Chinese government officially recognized him as the true leader of Tibet. In 1964, he was stripped of his power. He died in 1989. In December 1995, another Tibetan boy, Gyaincain Norbu, was selected by the Chinese government and enthroned in Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama. He is not recognized as such by the Tibetan government-in-exile nor by the majority of the international community.

Panchen Lama a Tibetan lama ranking next after the Dalai Lama. The name comes from Tibetan panchen, abbreviation of pandi-tachen-po ‘great learned one’. The Panchen Lama identifies the new Dalai Lama.