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Didn't know where to post this...

edited September 2006 in Buddhism Basics
I thought the Panchem Lama was still missing? I saw the below article a second ago... Is this just chinese propaganda?


Tibetans queue to receive blessings from Panchen Lama

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/22/content_5126653.htm?rss=1


XIGAZE, Tibet, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- To 47-year-old Tibetan Norbu, losing a precious day of farm work in the busy season was a price worth paying to get a blessing from the 11th Panchen Lama, a living Buddha in his heart.

The farmer, who lives in Xaitongoin County of the Tibet Autonomous Region, got up early on Friday morning and traveled to Xigaze, a city 80 kilometers from his home, to see the Tibetan Buddhist leader at Tashilunpo Monastery, the Panchen Lama residence.

"I was delighted to get the blessing from the living Buddha again," said Norbu after the Panchen Lama touched his head.

The farmer said he keeps the portrait of the 11th Panchen Lama, which he managed to get when the high monk performed the head-touching ritual last year, in his home together with those ofthe 10th Panchen Lama and the Lotus-Born Monk, an Indian Buddhist master who spread the religion to Tibet.

Norbu was one of 2,000 believers to be blessed by the Panchen Lama from 10 to 12 a.m. on Friday.

They had to queue to enter the hall where the ritual was held. After being touched, most stayed in the hall praying until lamas came to persuade them to make room for those waiting outside.

For two hours, a smiling Panchen Lama kept touching the heads of believers and giving his blessing.

Seventy-six-year-old Yungzhung said it was the third time she had seen the living buddha.

"It is a joy for me to be able to see the living Buddha in my heart a third time," the old woman said, holding her palms together and praying towards the throne of the Panchen Lama.

"I got up early and washed my head to see his majesty," said the granny dressed in traditional Tibetan costume.

The 17-year-old Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, was approved by the central government as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama in November 1995 after a lot drawing ceremony among three candidates in Jokhang Temple in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa.

Drawing lots from a golden urn to decide the final choice of the reincarnation of a high lama has long been a tradition in Tibetan Buddhism, and the custom of seeking approval from the central government dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The young lama studies Buddhism in Beijing and frequently visits Tibet and other Tibetan ethnic areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces to hold religious rituals.

When he visited Nagqu in the north of the Tibet Autonomous Region in August, more than 20,000 believers, mostly herdsmen, came to receive a blessing from the living Buddha, who spent a day and a half in their midst.

The young Tibetan Buddhist leader dismounted from his throne to touch the heads of disabled believers in wheelchairs.

Since his ordination in 1995, the living buddha has blessed about 300,000 people. Enditem

Comments

  • not1not2not1not2 Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I thought the Panchem Lama was still missing? I saw the below article a second ago... Is this just chinese propaganda?

    yep

    _/\_
    metta
  • edited September 2006
    yeah I heard China has a "Panchen Lama" they use and the real one is still in captivity or something.
  • edited September 2006
    so basically we'll see stories like this occasionally but they are false?
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited September 2006
    To those reading them and appraising them, I would say, yes. To those publishing and issuing them, perhaps not.....
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I just had a couple of friends return from China on a business trip.

    They said that it was quite a shock. Not to mention all the propaganda that is plaster all over the place.

    "You should be happy - your country takes care of you."
    "You live in the best country on the Earth."
    "China is the greatest nation in the world."

    All the while, most people live in poverty and work for a pittance while the fat cats all get richer. Dark, dingy factories where people make about $90.00 US a month to live on.

    They also said that many of the cities they visited - which were filthy (so polluted that plants that had been growing outside of factories were all dead) - but everyone knows that is changing before the Olympics. The plan is to hide everything that needs to be hidden, plant new plants and slap on a new coat of paint before everyone shows up.

    -bf
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited September 2006
    bf,

    They did the same thing to Detroit for the Super Bowl.

    Jason
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Detroit!

    I'm sure they did and it doesn't surprise me at all. Aren't they a communist state as well run by Henrimir Fordski?

    -bf
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Actually everything you described reminded me of this country, bf. I forget who it was, but someone compared our invasion of Iraq to the Chinese invasion of Tibet. It's actually very, very similar. Of course Saddam is no Dalai Lama, but Iraq also was no threat to us, just as Tibet was no threat to China.

    Palzang
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited September 2006
    I agree with you, Palzang. The 'slogans' on walls in China and in the US proclaiming the "greatest nation on earth", "the (US/Chinese) dream", etc., etc. are all of a piece: poisonous nationalism and parochial xenophobia encouraged by the governors.

    Just as Taking Refuge is a way out, for the harijans, of the caste system, so it should, imo, remove us from the poisonous system of parochialism.
  • JerbearJerbear Veteran
    edited September 2006
    Detroit got a new coat of paint? It looked like crap the last time I was there! And I live right outside of it.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited September 2006
    Jerbear, please watch your language.







    Detroit is not a pretty word..... :D
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