“At just six years old, he was abducted by Chinese authorities — an act that remains one of the starkest examples of China’s grave human rights violations,” Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson for the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan exile government, known as the Central Tibetan Administration, told Radio Free Asia. “We urgently call on the Chinese government to reveal the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts and ensure his well-being. As a spiritual leader and as a human being, he has the fundamental right to live freely and fulfill his spiritual responsibilities without fear or restriction,” Lekshay said.
On May 17, 1995, just days after the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, officially recognized Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama, Beijing abducted the then-6-year-old boy with his family and teacher.
