I read an article in the October 1999 Faces magazine (for kids) called "The World's Youngest Political Prisoner". This is about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the child selected as the Eleventh Panchen Lama in Tibet who was (is?) detained by the Chinese authorities. The article states that a Tibetan search party found and identifyed Nyima as the Eleventh Panchen Lama but the Chinese government claimed that as the ruling government they had final say in the religious affairs of Tibet. Nyima and his family were taken into custody by Chinese authorities and have not been seen since. The Chinese government named another boy to be the Panchen Lama, a boy said to be the son of government officials. This has led to additional political turmoil between Tibet and China.
I was amazed to learn about this. I was only a kid during the early 90's when this occured, but I still would have thought that by now I would have heard about this. It was not even mentioned in all my years of Amnesty International in high school! I think this is an excellent article and topic to use when informing my studetnts about the relationship between China and Tibet, and also another example of the sturggle to maintain culture when a civilization has been taken under the rule of another government.
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