The Panchen Lama is being groomed by China to rival the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. On Thursday, he made his first speech outside the Chinese mainland, highlighting the emergence of Dharma from ancient India and the need for its global promotion.
In religion, Dharma means the law or the natural law and is a concept of central importance. For many Buddhists, the Dharma most often means the body of teachings expounded by the Buddha, the 22-year-old monk said. His comments came during his first public appearance outside the Chinese mainland at the World Buddhist Forum in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China with a governing structure of its own.
Buddha was a spiritual teacher from India on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. Since the propagation of Dharma in ancient India, many learned Buddhist masters have established monasteries and institutes in various countries for different races, promoting Buddhism like rainbows appearing all over the world, he said.
In his speech, Panchen Lama confined his topics to religious issues without referring to the unrest occurring in some Tibetan areas and to recurring suicides by young Buddhist monks calling for the return of the Dalai Lama from exile. Over 30 people attempted self-immolations including one in New Delhi.
In the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, the Panchen Lama is regarded as the second most important incarnation after the Dalai Lama. Reporting his speech, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency described Panchen Lama as “one of the two most senior living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism” without directly referring to the Dalai Lama, whom it criticizes as splitist for apparently trying to separate Tibet from China.
Jampa Dolma
November 11, 2013
please..HH Panchen Lama incarnation is considered by tibetans to be spiritually higher than HH Dalai Lama, who has always been the political leader