Gyaincain Norbu

I can clearly recognize who truly loves and protects the Tibetan people, and who for personal motives unscrupulously wrecks Tibet’s tranquility and stability.

We must resolutely distance ourselves from all separatist forces, and resolutely prevent Tibetan Buddhism – including the temples, monks and nuns – from becoming a tool of Western anti-China forces to oppose the motherland and split the nation, and from becoming a victim of their political conspiracy.

Chökyi Gyalpo, also referred to by his secular name Gyaincain Norbu or Gyaltsen Norbu (born 13 February 1990), is considered the 11th Panchen Lama by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). He is also the vice president of the Buddhist Association of China. Gyalpo is considered by some to be a proxy of the Chinese government.

Quotes

• I want to sincerely thank the Communist Party for giving me a pair of clear eyes, so I can tell right from wrong.
  • "China's Panchen Lama criticizes "unscrupulous" foes" in Reuters (27 March 2009)

• I can clearly recognize who truly loves and protects the Tibetan people, and who for personal motives unscrupulously wrecks Tibet’s tranquility and stability.
  • "China's Panchen Lama criticizes "unscrupulous" foes" in Reuters (27 March 2009)

• The virtuous Buddha compassionately and skillfully opened the door to the Dharma, pointing out for us the way to choose between wholesome and unwholesome acts. Aiming at both getting self-enlightenment and enlightening others, Buddhism has prospered for thousand years, and is now an important component of the world religion.
  • "Panchen Lama delivers speech in HK" in China Daily (26 April 2012)

• Since the prosperity of Dharma in ancient India, many learnt Buddhists have established monasteries and institutes at various countries for different races, promoting Buddhism like rainbows appearing all over the world. Significant contributions to the development of human societies, ethics and cultural education have been made
  • "Panchen Lama delivers speech in HK" in China Daily (26 April 2012)

• However, it is a contemporary trend to put "materialistic technology" ahead of the "science of the mind". "Increasing greediness in people's hearts has unbalanced the eco-systems, contaminated the environments, caused natural disasters, spread epidemics, induced wars and hence endangered all sentient beings now and in future
  • "Panchen Lama delivers speech in HK" in China Daily (26 April 2012)

• We must resolutely distance ourselves from all separatist forces, and resolutely prevent Tibetan Buddhism – including the temples, monks and nuns – from becoming a tool of Western anti-China forces to oppose the motherland and split the nation, and from becoming a victim of their political conspiracy.
  • "China’s official Panchen Lama tells Tibetan Buddhists to stay away from separatist forces" (28 July 2021)

Speech at Third Session of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee (2015) (excerpts)

If we don’t understand Buddhism ourselves, we cannot deliver its benefits to the masses of religious believers, publicize the Party’s ethnic and religious policies, enable the masses to understand the various policies, maintain the situation of social harmony and stability, or play a positive role in guiding the masses of religious believers.

Buddhism has specified that where four or more monks have formed a group, they should regularly hold Buddhist meetings.

It is in the hopes of training Tibetan Buddhist talent which unswervingly takes the road of adapting to socialist society with Chinese characteristics.

China attempts to legitimize its Panchen Lama through a major speech as the real Panchen Lama’s birthday approaches

• As we all know, in recent years the Tibet Autonomous Region’s social situation has enjoyed long-term stability, with people’s lives becoming more prosperous, economic development progressing steadily, and rapid advances in various undertakings. In the glow of the Party’s ethnic and religious policies, each ethnic group enjoys freedom of religious belief, traditional culture has been fully protected, and religious activities are carried out normally. We can say that this is extremely important.

• With the establishment of monastic management committees, full play has been given to their role as a bridge between monasteries and the government, better managing and resolving a variety of issues in the monasteries and giving a more complete picture of the specific difficulties that monasteries, monks, and nuns face. Carrying out activities to help poor monks, repairing the roads and bridges leading to remote monasteries, doing charity work, and taking care of practical issues; monks are concerned with these kinds of things.

• To put it simply, right now in Tibet the monks of many monasteries feel that their numbers are too few and there is no small gap keeping them from being able to satisfy the needs of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the needs of the people of faith.

• The Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which must both rely on religious tradition and adapt to society, must advance with the times while explaining the religious doctrines and texts. Tibetan Buddhism makes a solemn commitment to “loving the country and loving religion, protecting the country and benefiting the people,” with a doctrine characterized by “compatibility with the esoteric and exoteric,” and a universal spirit of “preaching the Dharma to benefit people’s lives, and compassion for all living beings.” Saying this is very simple, but it takes a long time to study and thoroughly understand.

• If you don’t carefully study the Buddhist scriptures, you won’t have a deep understanding of the Dharma, and you will find it impossible to advance with the times and explain the religious texts and doctrines. If we don’t understand Buddhism ourselves, we cannot deliver its benefits to the masses of religious believers, publicize the Party’s ethnic and religious policies, enable the masses to understand the various policies, maintain the situation of social harmony and stability, or play a positive role in guiding the masses of religious believers.

• Tibetan Buddhism is the faith of the majority of the people of Tibet. Over the years Tibetan Buddhism has become integrated with every aspect of Tibetan society. As such monks have a custom of frequently going to the people’s homes to provide religious services, such as when people are born, grow old, become sick, and die, during festivals and weddings, for agriculture and livestock, and other special occasions – this is known as “performing Buddhist rituals.” The masses have very serious requirements for Buddhist rituals, but due to the small number of monks in a large number of the monasteries we cannot satisfy them.

• Some people living in very distant locations request monks, [which requires travel] along very inconvenient roads, causing financial hardships for the masses; some request monks from other townships and counties, which the monks must traverse while arranging the formalities, causing occasional delays; and sometimes nearby monasteries belong to a different monastic sect, meaning monks must be requested from afar, leading to sectarian issues.

• Buddhism has specified that where four or more monks have formed a group, they should regularly hold Buddhist meetings. This basically means that everyone should come together to discuss and inspect their adherence to the precepts. Because this provides a systemic guarantee for both the Buddhist precepts and the development of Buddhism, and because it’s a concrete manifestation of Buddhist ideology, it holds a very special role and significance.

• Training qualified personnel must now be put on the agenda. Training qualified personnel requires excellent talented people to do the training, and also talented people in general. These two issues are closely linked. It has the same relationship as the one between university admissions and the cultivation of postgraduate students. Today I would like to address the most fundamental issue of increasing the quotas: as quotas are increased, an increase in quality is guaranteed; and without an increase it will be difficult to have a qualitative improvement. In Tibet I saw that the relatively small number of monks was a difficulty for the monasteries, and a large part of that problem is that the quotas are set too low.

• It is in the hopes of training Tibetan Buddhist talent which unswervingly takes the road of adapting to socialist society with Chinese characteristics. Only in this way can Tibetan Buddhism continue to carry forward the tradition of protecting the country and benefiting the people, loving the country and loving religion, playing Tibetan Buddhism’s role in national prosperity and the happiness of the people, a positive role in social harmony and stability, in order to return Tibetan Buddhism to its original formation, illuminating the country and benefiting all sentient beings.