On the eve of the Panchen Lama’s 31st birthday, religious freedom advocates called on China Friday to release the second most well-known religious figure in Tibet, believed to be languishing under house arrest in an undisclosed location.
On May 14, 1995, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, recognized six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11thPanchen Lama and three days later, Chinese authorities took him and his family away, installing another boy in his place. He was for years considered the world’s youngest political prisoner.
The religious leader’s whereabouts and condition remain unknown and he has not been seen in public since his disappearance.
