Tibetan advocacy organizations and international rights groups called this week on China to release a high-ranking Tibetan religious figure taken into custody 22 years ago and held incommunicado ever since. 
 
 
 
 Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, now 28 years old, was detained together with his family by Chinese authorities in 1995 after he was identified by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second most-senior Buddhist monk. 
 
 
 
 A Beijing-backed candidate, Gyaincain Norbu, was then installed by China in his place, and remains unpopular among Tibetans. 
 
 
 
 Nothing has been learned of the fate of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima since he vanished with his family in detention, and requests by the United Nations and other international agencies and human rights organizations to visit him have consistently been refused by Beijing. 
 
 
 
 Speaking in an interview with RFA's Tibetan Service, Dardon Sharling—a secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Dharamsala, India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)—described the Panchen Lama's continued disappearance as the "greatest representation of China's overall policy toward Tibet and Tibetans." 
 
 
 
 "The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance has told CTA officials that the issue of the Panchen Lama remains an 'unresolved case,'" Sharling said. 
 
 
 
 China's refusal to allow the young lama to fulfill his traditional role is a "huge loss not only for the Panchen Lama himself but also for Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people," Sonam Gyaltsen—a professor of history at the College of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah, in Dharamsala—told RFA. 
 
 
 
 "Getting a proper spiritual education is the most important cause for a reincarnated lama to be able to continue the work of his predecessor," Gyaltsen said. 
 
 
 
 'Serious international crime' 
 
 
 
 In an open letter released on April 25, the Panchen Lama’s birthday, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner Tenzin Dorjee chose words that spoke directly to Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, voicing his sadness that the missing Panchen Lama may never read his words. 
 
 
 
 “Ever since you were abducted as a young child at the age of six, the Chinese government has refused to share even basic information about you and your whereabouts,” Dorjee wrote. 
 
 
 
 “Please know that I think about you every day, and as each year passes, my resolve to find you and restore you to your rightful role becomes stronger.” 
 
 
 
 “The continued detention of the Panchen Lama in secret is an act of enforced disappearance,” the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) added in a statement this week. 
 
 
 
 “[This] is a serious international crime that violates multiple human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other major international human rights instruments,” TCHRD said. 
 
 
 
 “TCHRD calls on the Chinese government to end the enforced disappearance of the Panchen Lama and allow him to live like a ‘normal’ human being with all the basic rights such as life, livelihood, and [freedom of] movement,” the rights group said. 
 
 
 
 Interference from Beijing 
 
 
 
 The selection of reincarnate lamas in Tibetan areas of China is now subject to approval by Beijing, with high-ranking religious teachers often cultivated by the government as “patriotic lamas”-—politically reliable figures who will not call for Tibetan independence from Chinese rule. 
 
 
 
 China is now keen to engineer a process that produces a pro-Beijing monk as the next Dalai Lama when the present holder of the title, now 81, eventually passes away. 
 
 
 
 “Without any recognition from the Dalai Lama, the Chinese authorities can never be able to put the stamp of legitimacy to their selection of any religious leader, whether it is the Panchen Lama or a future Dalai Lama,” Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said in an April 25 statement. 
 
 
 
 “China might want to have its own version of Rule by Incarnation,” Tsering said. “But it is the will of the believers that will really matter.” 
 
 
 
 “The earlier the Chinese authorities realize this, the better it will be for them.” 
 
 Reported by Urgyen Tenzin for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Kalden Lodoe. Written in English by Richard Finney. ||||| 20 Years After China Seized Boy Monk, Tibetans Call For His Release 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Tsering Topgyal/AP Tsering Topgyal/AP 
 
 Two decades after a 6-year-old boy designated as Tibetan Buddhism's second most important spiritual leader was swept up by Chinese authorities and never heard from again, the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile has renewed a call for his release. 
 
 Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who would be about 26 years old today, was chosen as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 after a lengthy search conducted by senior Tibetan monks determined him to be the reincarnated soul of the post's deceased predecessor. 
 
 On May 17, 1995, three days after he was anointed by the Dalai Lama, the boy was detained by Chinese authorities and promptly disappeared. Beijing subsequently named another child, Gyaincain Norbu, to the position. 
 
 On the anniversary of Gedhun's disappearance, Penpa Tsering, the speaker of the Tibetan Parliament in Dharamsala, India, appealed to the Chinese government to release him. 
 
 "I believe that the efforts of the Chinese government in keeping the Panchen Lama in a secret location is to deprive him of all the religious [training] that he [needs] to undertake so that he can teach to the future generations of Tibetans," Penpa said. 
 
 He said he believed China hoped to keep the Panchen Lama from learning the Tibetan language "so that he would not be in a position to communicate directly with the Tibetan people in the future." 
 
 China's choice for Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, has been largely rejected by Tibetans living outside of China. 
 
 He debuted on the international stage in 2006, urging Tibetans to work toward unity with China. And, six years later, speaking at the World Buddhist Forum in Hong Kong, he criticized "materialistic technology" and said greed had "unbalanced the ecosystems, contaminated the environments, caused natural disasters, spread epidemics, induced wars and hence endangered all sentient beings now and in future", according to a transcript of the 8-minute speech.
– This week marked the 28th birthday of Tibet’s Panchen Lama, reinvigorating calls for his release from detention by the Chinese government. Radio Free Asia reports that at just 6 years old, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family were detained when the exiled Dalai Lama named him the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Chinese authorities swiftly removed Nyima and installed government-backed Gyaincain Norbu to the religious and political position. The role of the Panchen Lama is the second most senior monk in Tibetan tradition, and Gyaincain Norbu remains an unsatisfactory candidate to many Tibetans who consider Nyima’s detention a tragedy. “Please know that I think about you every day, and as each year passes, my resolve to find you and restore you to your rightful role becomes stronger,” the head of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote in an open letter to the missing Panchen Lama. Little has emerged about him over the last 22 years. According to the Hong Kong Free Press, Chinese officials stated in 2015 that he doesn’t want to be bothered and is “living a normal life,” including attending school. But Beijing has denied the United Nations as well as human rights group's requests to check up on him. Current law dictates that reincarnate lamas must be approved by Beijing in order to discourage a rallying call for Tibetan independence, a process that could instate a new “patriotic lama” once the current Dalai Lama, who is 81, one day passes away.