But when the Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959, the Panchen Lama remained behind. In 1956, he visited India for the 2,500-year celebration of the Buddha’s birth. The Panchen Lama became a member of the Working Committee and a high-level member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Vice Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Chairman being His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1954, he and the Dalai Lama travelled to China to attend the National People’s Congress. The Tenth Panchen LamaĬhokyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, was born in Amdo in Eastern Tibet in 1938, and was recognised as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama by Alak Lakho Rinpoche, and later (in 1951) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Panchen is an abbreviation of ‘Pandita’ and ‘Chenpo,’ meaning Great Scholar. Tibetans often refer to the Dalai Lama as the sun, and the Panchen Lama as the moon. Traditionally the elder Lama would recognize the reincarnation of the younger. The Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama have always been inextricably linked. Over the years the monastery flourished as a centre of learning, and played a vital role in the preservation of Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy. Under the 4th Panchen Lama, Tashi Lhunpo became an integrated society where monks from Tibet, Bhutan, India, Nepal and China lived in harmony, providing a community where monks received education as well as the warmth and love of a family. In the same way as the Dalai Lamas, three previous Abbots of Tashi Lhunpo were retrospectively given the title Panchen Lama, making Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen the fourth in the line.
The Panchen Lamas became - together with the Dalai Lamas - the most important religious leaders in Tibet. ‘Panchen’ is the shortened form of Pandita Chenpo, meaning Great Scholar. The monastery grew in importance in the 16th Century, when Tashi Lhunpo’s Abbot, Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662) was recognised by the Fifth Dalai Lama as an incarnation of Amitabha, the spiritual teacher of Chenrezig and the patron saint of Tibet, and was given the title ‘Panchen Lama’. Tashi Lhunpo was founded by His Holiness the 1st Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Gedun Drup in 1447, and became the largest, most vibrant monastery in Tibet. Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the principal monastery of the U-Tsang Province in Tibet, is one of the Great Six centres of the Gelugpa tradition.
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