How was the soul boy found

Woqen Benba, an abbot of the Tashilhungpo Monastery Tantric Zacang, led a delegation several times to secretly search for the soul boy of the late 10th Panchen Erdeni. On a winter evening in 1995, we visited him, and were informed of the real facts related to the work.(Photo by Jin Zhiguo)

On January 28th, 1989, the 10th Panchen Erdeni passed away in Tashilhungpo Monastery in Xigaze. On the following day, the monastery announced the prayer whole-heartedly hoping for his soul boy to be born and revealed as early as possible.

Buddhists believe that, when ordinary people and even Living Buddhas have died, their return to the world calls for their souls to enter the mother's body and stay there for ten months before birth. All told, it takes a whole year to incarnate.

However, when a Panchen dies, he soon returns to the world. For example, the 8th Panchen died on July 15, 1882, and the 9th Panchen was born on the 12th day of the first lunar month in 1883, with a time gap of only five months and 12 days; the 9th Panchen died on December 1, 1937, and the 10th Panchen Erdeni was born on the third day of the first lunar month in 1938, a time gap of only one month and two days.

Viewing Reflections in the Holy Lake

After the Lamas had read sutras and worshiped some famous holy Buddhas in Tibet, the Tashilhungpo Monastery sent group after group of eminent monks and Living Buddhas to head for the holy lakes of Lhamo La Co and Yongzha Lu Co, where they could view reflections which the Tibetans believe would indicate the location, animal sign and the features of the birthplace of the reincarnated 10th Panchen Erdeni.

Lhamo La Co nestles deep in the snow-capped mountain of Gyacha County, south of the Yarlung Zangbo River, at 5,200 meters. It is surrounded by cliffs, and it takes about three hours to walk around the lake. The eminent monks and Living Buddhas sat quietly and prayed first, then they burn aromatic plants to offer sacrifice to the holy lake, in which they usually can view the essence from the reflections.

For the reincarnation of the 11th Panchen, the eminent monks viewed the lake several times. On July 6, 1989, after worshiping Sakyamuni and the Auspicious Heavenly Maid in the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa, the delegation consisting of Living Buddha Qoinbo, Living Buddha Bilung from the Tashilhungpo Monastery's Zegung Zhacang headed for Qugogyi Monastery in Shannan's Gyacha County, and then made their way along the steep mountain path to Lhamo La Co.

It began to rain and snow at that time. Living Buddha Qoinbo and Living Buddha Bilung and other Buddhas conducted religious rituals to pray for blessings from the Auspicious Heavenly Maid, and waited patiently for directions. The day turned clear towards evening, and a life like scene was reflected on the water. Living Buddha Qoinbo saw the following patterns reflected by a white cloud on the lake, a "big foot" pointing south, a "Buddhist bottle" with its mouth toward the east, the letter "Sa" in the Tibetan language, three arrowheads pointing east.

On June 22, 1991, Woqen Benba, Abbot Myima Shida and other persons went to Qugogyi to view the lake for the second time. All of them were aged over 60. They put up tents for the night by the lake, and got up before dawn the next day. Then, in the teeth of a strong wind, they strenuously made their way along a steep mountain path to the lakeside.

They burnt aromatic plants and threw bottles filled with offerings into the water, and offered the golden wine called "Serchin". Then, they sat praying in a corner to wait for the reflections to appear.

For a while, the sky was dullish, and rain and snow was falling fast and thick; the surface of the lake was very dim, and everything seemed mysterious. Shortly, the wind died down and it stopped snowing; the water of the lake mingled with white light, and, as the monks began reciting sutras more earnestly, gradually the reflections began to take shape.

Woqen Benba saw a clear letter of "Zha" in the Tibetan language and the Arabic figure "2" along with a red house, a snow-capped mountain and a door.

Myima Shida saw trees on the lawn, a white house with a Tibetan door and window, a big place like the Buddha-painting terrace of the Tashilhungpo Monastery and many trees on both banks of a river.

On June 17, 1989, Living Buddha Qoinbo and Living Buddha Bilung led the search group to worship at Renbo Yongzha Lu Co Lake. All these mysterious signs they saw in the lake indicated that the new master of the Tashilhungpo Monastery would come from east or northeast, and he should be born in the Tibetan Year of the Snake, Horse or Sheep.

Searching Carefully for the Soul Boy

Later on, several groups dispatched by Tashilhungpo Monastery undertook the task of secretly searching for the soul boy everywhere, with no distinction between day and night. Finally, it was the spring of 1994 and the groups had searched for the soul boy in Tibet, and the Tibetan-inhabited areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan.

In order to find the reincarnated soul boy, who would now be aged four or five, in an area covering 2 million square km, they painstakingly knocked at the doors of innumerable monasteries, consulted many eminent monks, and visited cities, towns, villages and pasturelands without number.

When the Panchen died, his face turned towards the northeast, so they had to search a vast area in that direction; the reflections in the holy lakes were in the shapes of snake, horse and sheep, so they had to check the babies born in those particular Tibetan years one by one. This investigation had to be carried out secretly so as to avoid any trouble.

The delegation headed by Living Buddha Bilung Bema Dainzin flew to Xining of Qinghai Province. There they began to search in the Tibetan-inhabited areas along the upper reaches of Yellow River and around Qinghai Lake, and also investigating new births of the counties affiliated to the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the area around the Labrang Monastery and the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan.

Geqen Lobsang Puncog and his party searched secretly in the areas of Sichuan Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Qamdo, Tibet.

The delegation led by Woqen Benba searched in the prairies of northern Tibet, the Shannan valley and the Lhasa area.

In the autumn of 1994, Tashilhungpo Monastery carried out another secret investigation in the areas of Nagqu, Lhasa, Shannan and Nyingchi.

From January 1995, the three groups engaged in a third investigation in the aforementioned areas. Meanwhile, they also had to examine and verify the located candidates. Taking more than a year, the Living Buddhas of Tashilhungpo Monastery covered 46 counties, thousands of towns and pasturelands in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, Gansu Province, Sichuan Province as well as Yunnan Province.

Finding Gyaincain Norbu

We firstly got to Lhasa City and stayed there for several days. Lhasa City is the economic and religious center of Tibet. Everyday, a large number of people from the entire Tibet area and the Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan came to Lhasa to handle official affairs, do business or worship. We did our best to enquire among them whether any intelligent and miraculous boy was born in their hometowns. The Living Buddhas of some monasteries enjoyed high prestige in the local area; usually, they were sent for to pray and name the newly born child, so that they would know most and were also trustworthy.

When viewing the reflections in Qugogyi Lake in Shannan's Gyacha County, I had seen the letter of ¡°Zha¡± in the Tibetan language meaning mountain rocks, and the Arabic figure "2". "Zhangang" and "Zhachi" which complied with the indications, so we decided to go there to have a look.

It was really difficult to carry out a secret on-the-spot investigation, but we managed to find out the truth without disturbing the common people.

We came to Zhangang and stayed in Samye Monastery, the most famous monastery in the area. We visited the abbot and informed him of our purpose of searching the for reincarnated soul boy. The abbot told us that a monk in his monastery was always wandering around the areas of Zhachi and Zhanang, and suggested he should identify boys born in the years of snake, horse and sheep in various villages. We agreed that it was a good idea. Members of our search group went to examine the so-called miraculous boys, and I also examined some of them. But, ultimately, we found no boy with any peculiar signs, and we doubted that the place indicated by the two "Zha's" was here, so we left Samye Monastery feeling most disappointed.

We trudged northward, and came to a monastery, where we saw a sorcerer. We offered him the Buddhist salute of bending the head and kneeling in adoration and asked him to foretell something about the reincarnation of the Panchen's soul boy. His face began to get distorted and his body began to tremble, which was the sign of being possessed by the Buddhist guardian. We asked, "He has the soul boy of the 10th Panchen been born?" He answered, it has? Then we asked him to give some tips for locating the soul boy. He said, "You have to start from Holy Lhasa and head toward northern Tibet? With these words, he returned to being a common person, and we could not get any more directions from him.

*The 10th Panchen Erdeni performing rituals in the Tar Monastery in Qinghai in 1980. (Xinhua photo)

We headed north until we arrived at Nagqu Town. There, we heard that a boy in Jiali County had a birthmark of ¡°Om" in the Tibetan language on his tongue, and this is the first word of the Six-Syllable Prayer, and the sign of wisdom of the Goddess of Mercy. We had heard such a mystic event for the first time.

We came to Jiali County and stayed in a hotel, before sending for his parents to bring him to the hotel. On the first sight, I recognized that he was out of ordinary: fair-complexioned and chubby, limpid eyes, big ears, bearing the appearance of a Living Buddha. He showed his tongue and the letter of "Om" was indeed obvious. Seeing him, my heart began to beat fast: maybe he was the very boy we had searched for through innumerable trials and hardships. I could not help holding out my hands to him; he immediately threw himself into my arms. I am a person with a stubbly beard and wearing glasses. I am serious in speech and manner, so children tend to avoid me. It was unexpected for it was as if Gyaincain Norbu was well acquainted with me; he snuggled up to me comfortably and soon slept sweetly in my arms. The members of my search group smiled, and the boy's parents smiled, too.

It was indicated that the boy bore countless ties with the Tashilhungpo Monastery. On December 8 of the following year, through the method of drawing a lot from the golden urn, the boy we located was firmly established as the reincarnated soul boy of the 10th Panchen Erdeni and became the new master of Tashilhungpo Monastery.

*Family members of the 11th Panchen Erdeni listening to the reciting of sutras by the 11th Panchen Erdeni on August 15,2004.(left to right );His mother sanggyi Zholma,his father Soinam Zhaba,and his brother Soinam Gongbo. (Xinhua photo)

China Tibet Magazine
Liao Dongfan