The man picked by Beijing as the second highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism pledged adherence to the ruling Communist Party’s dictates on Friday during a rare face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Gyaltsen Norbu, who is rarely seen in public, met behind closed doors with Mr Xi in Zhongnanhai, the government compound in the centre of Beijing, about 2,300 miles from his home monastery of Tashilhumpo, high on the Tibetan steppe.
The 35-year-old said he would “firmly support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and resolutely safeguard the unity of the motherland and national unity”, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Chinese government appointed him as the Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism in 1995 at age five after followers of the Dalai Lama recognised a different boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the Panchen’s incarnation.
That boy and his family disappeared in 1995 in what the US government has alleged was an abduction by the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama, 89, has refused to recognise the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama.
The Chinese government says Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is now a college graduate living a private life and working a stable job, while producing no evidence.
The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama was quoted on Friday by Xinhua as saying he would “contribute to promoting national unity and progress, systematically promote the sinicisation of religion in China, and promote the modernisation of Tibet”.
Mr Xi’s government uses the term “sinicisation” to mean that all religions including Christianity and Islam must take their orders from the Communist Party, reduce their non-Chinese aspects and limit their role in society.
Mr Xi was quoted as telling the Chinese government’s Panchen that he should continue Tibetan Buddhism’s “strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, systematically advancing the sinicisation of religion in China, and promoting the modernisation of Tibet”.
Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the disappearance of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, saying he and his family had been abducted by the Chinese government.
“Chinese authorities should release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima immediately and stop persecuting Tibetans for their religious beliefs,” Mr Rubio’s statement read.
The position of Panchen Lama is especially sensitive since he is expected to take part in the recognition of a new Dalai Lama and serve as his tutor, a religious process that the officially atheist Communist Party is determined to control.
The meeting on Friday also reflected Mr Xi’s focus on economic and political stability within China’s borders, where an economic slump has raised concerns of anti-government outbursts and control over minority groups is an overwhelming obsession.
