China, free the Panchen Lama! Petition, please sign!

This week, China is lending its support to the historic World Buddhist Forum to discard its tarnished image on religious freedom. Yet neither the Dalai Lama nor any of Tibetan Buddhism's senior leaders like the Karmapa will be at the conference, not to speak of the detained 17-year-old Panchen Lama. Why didn't China invite them?

The Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet in 1959 after his country was invaded by China and an uneasy arrangement between the Tibetan and Chinese governments failed. The Karmapa too, despite China's attempts to indoctrinate him from childhood, fled the absence of religious freedom in Tibet to join the Dalai Lama in exile in 1999 - a solid indication that China had not eased its stance on religion or Tibet in forty years.

Tibet's Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, has not been invited either. Determined to control Tibet, the Chinese authorities kidnapped this young boy and his family in 1995 just days after he was recognized as the Panchen Lama. He was six years old at the time.


Over the past 11 years, China has stubbornly resisted international calls to report on the whereabouts and well-being of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. Chinese authorities have punished any attempt by Tibetan Buddhists to conduct normal religious practices venerating him as the 11th Panchen Lama. Instead, they have propagated the legitimacy of an alternative boy that their atheist officials enshrined and made the figurehead of the conference.

Tell the Chinese government that allowing the World Buddhist Forum in China will appear as an empty gesture if it does not release the Panchen Lama and allow religious practice to peacefully flourish in Tibet. Please act now to help us free the Panchen Lama!


Link to the petition


http://www.savetibet.org/action/itempl.php?ms=email1




Thank you.

 

thanks for the link

 

hey i hope we can make a difference