Setting a Religious Trap: Religious ceremony by China’s Panchen Lama signals China’s control strategies

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Setting a Religious Trap: Religious ceremony by China’s Panchen Lama signals China’s control strategies

In a new development weaponising sacred Buddhist rituals for political control, the Chinese government-installed Panchen Lama conferred a major religious empowerment in Lhasa, involving monks and prominent Buddhist lamas from across Tibet. On 9-12 October, Gyaltsen Norbu, Beijing's appointed 11th Panchen Lama, led a four-day Kalachakra empowerment - one of the most sacred initiations in Tibetan Buddhist practice - at Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Shigatse...