The Panchen LamaIn a press conference on April 21, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) made an appeal to the international community, hoping to garner support for a new campaign that calls for the release of Tibet’s 11th Panchen Lama — who disappeared in 1995 — as well as all Tibetan political prisoners.
The CTA hopes to mobilize social-media users to create worldwide awareness of the campaign. A Facebook page, Solidarity With Tibet, has been launched, and followers are urged to share using the hashtag, #Releasepanchenlama. It’s hoped that these efforts will really take flight around on May 17, 2015, International Solidarity Day with Tibet, coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of the Panchen Lama’s disappearance.
As Tibet Post reports, CTA spokesperson Tashi Phuntsok told reporters yesterday, “The case of the Panchen Lama is not only the story of an innocent six-year old child disappearing for 20 years, but also a blatant symptom of political repression and lack of religious freedom. The enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama is a vivid case of China’s aggression against Tibetan people by hijacking a centuries-old traditional Buddhist practice of reincarnation for political ends.”
