What We Lose with Cultural Extinction: The Red Thread Cut

On May 14, 1995, the 14th Dalai Lama recognized six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama, the reincarnation of the second-highest authority in Tibetan Buddhism. Three days later, Chinese authorities abducted the boy Nyima and his family, replacing him with their own appointee, Gyaincain Norbu. The Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama have historically identified each other's reincarnations since the 1300's. A mutual legitimation relationship, where each was the witness to the other's continuation. Two hands needed to pass a single flame. The Panchen Lama is meant to recognize the next Dalai Lama after he passes. With Nyima disappeared, the chain of mutual recognition is forever broken. China knows spiritual authority is political sovereignty. The Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism works with the practice of reincarnation recognition; the system is predicated on continuity and the unbroken thread of one realized soul finding the next. Break the thread and you kill the…