Panchen Lama (redirected from 11th incarnation Panchen Lama)

Panchen Lama: see Tibetan Buddhism.

---

Panchen Lama

Any of the line of reincarnated lamas who head the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Tibet, traditionally second only to the Dalai Lama in spiritual authority in the dominant sect of Tibetan Buddhism. A Panchen Lama installed by the Chinese Nationalist government in 1949 later became an official under the Chinese communists. He remained in Tibet after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 but was imprisoned in 1964 after criticizing the government. He was released in the late 1970s and died in 1989. The Dalai Lama and government subsequently chose different successors.

---

Panchen Lama 

(from pan, shortened form of Sanskrit pandit, “learned man”; Tibetan chen, “great”; and Tibetan lama, “superior”), the title of the second hierarch, after the Dalai Lama, in Tibetan Lamaism. The institution of the Panchen Lama has existed since the mid-17th century. The tenth Panchen Lama was Lobsan Prinlelhuntrup Chkhoki-gyetsei (born 1938). He was elevated to the rank in 1949. He occupied a series of important government posts in the autonomous region of Tibet. He was arrested in 1964, and his subsequent fate is unknown.