The Theater of Obedience: 30 Years of the False Panchen Lama

By celebrating the anniversary of its counterfeit, the CCP is announcing that it will brook no challenge to its authority over the next reincarnation: that of the Dalai Lama.

By Lopsang Gurung

December 15, 2025

The enthronement of the false Panchen Lama on December 8, 1995. Screenshot.

The official report on the December 9 gathering at Tashilhunpo Monastery in Xigaze reads like a script of ritualized loyalty. Monks, relatives, and “representatives of the general public” dutifully presented gifts, danced, and chanted sutras. Officials from the United Front Work Department praised Xi Jinping’s earnest expectations for the Panchen Lama, while the false “Living Buddha” himself extolled the “law-based management” of reincarnation. Every phrase dripped with the Party’s obsession: reincarnation must be Chinese, socialist, and centrally approved.

This is not religion. It is a theater. The enthronement of the boy selected by Beijing in 1995—after the real Panchen Lama, recognized by the Dalai Lama, was abducted and disappeared—was never accepted by Tibetans. Yet three decades later, the Party insists on staging anniversaries to normalize its counterfeit.

The timing is deliberate. The Dalai Lama, revered worldwide, has reached the age of ninety. His eventual passing will trigger the search for his reincarnation, a process that Tibetan tradition regards as sacred. Beijing’s commemoration of its Panchen Lama is a rehearsal for the main act: the assertion that only the Communist Party can decide who the next Dalai Lama will be.

The CCP insists that reincarnations must be “searched within Chinese territory,” confirmed by “drawing lots from the golden urn,” and “approved by the central government.” In other words, the Party claims sovereignty not only over land and people but over the metaphysical cycle of rebirth.

The false “golden urn ceremony” held in 1995 to designate the CCP’s Panchen Lama. Screenshot.

This is the grotesque inversion at the heart of Beijing’s policy: “freedom of religion” is invoked to justify state control of reincarnation. The Party insists it is “safeguarding national unity and ethnic solidarity” by dictating who Tibetans must worship. It is the same logic that has been used to crush Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners, and house church Christians. Religion is tolerated only when it is domesticated, Sinicized, and made to serve the Party.

The dusty ritual of the enthronement anniversary is a warning shot. Beijing is preparing the world for the day it unveils its own Dalai Lama, a puppet enthroned under the same “law-based management” that produced the false Panchen Lama. If the international community accepts this charade, Tibetan Buddhism will be reduced to a department of the United Front.

The false Panchen Lama shortly after his “enthronement” in 1995. Screenshot.

Indignation is a duty. But it is not enough. Recognition of the real Panchen Lama, who has been missing since 1995, must remain central to any discussion of Tibet. As for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the world should insist that it be a matter of faith, not a Party decree.

Source: bitterwinter.org