Tibetans-in-exile Celebrate PanChen lama’s birthday

Tibetans living in exile in India celebrated the 29th birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama on Wednesday. The Panchen Lama, considered to be second only to the Dalai Lama, is said to be living in “captivity” in China. “We successfully lit 130,232 candles for the Panchen Lama,” said Tenzin Tselha, India National Director for Students for a Free Tibet. “We broke the previous world record of 72,585 candles lit.” “To celebrate the Panchen Lama’s birthday and bring international attention to his continued status as a captive political prisoner in China,” she told The Sunday Guardian, “SFT India teamed up with Tashi Lhunpo monastery in India to break the Guinness World record for ‘Most Candles Lit on a Birthday Cake’.”

The original Tashi Lhunpo monastery, founded in 1447 by the first Dalai Lama, is a historic and culturally important monastery in Shigatse, the secondlargest city in Tibet. The monastery was “sacked” when the Gorkha kingdom invaded Tibet and captured Shigatse in 1791, before a combined Tibetan and Chinese army drove them back as far as the outskirts of Kathmandu. In 1972, a new campus of Tashi Lhunpo monastery was built by Tibetan exiles at a settlement in Bylakuppe, Karnataka.

The identity of the current Panchen Lama is controversial. Under Chinese official support, Chokyi Gyalpo currently acts as the 11th Panchen Lama in Tibet. However, he has been rejected abroad.

The Chinese government has been accused of kidnapping the Panchen Lama recognised by the Tibetan Government-inexile, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.