In 2009, at the Second World Buddhist Congress, Chökyi Jebu gave a speech in public on the problems faced by modern society, including environmental degradation, the gap between rich and poor, financial crisis, conflicts and wars, and terrorist attacks.

"How to truly put into practice the teachings preached by Buddhism, that is, compassion and salvation for all sentient beings?"

Regarding this question, the "post-90s" Panchen Erdeni Choekyi Jebu gave his own answer.

That is "Let religion play an active role in the economic and social development of our country."

He believes that in this regard, "We need to further explore" .

In the rapidly changing 21st century, many things have begun their own development and "evolution", and religion is no exception.

Chökyi Gyebu shoulders the important task of inheriting and promoting Tibetan Buddhism. If we want to inherit and promote Tibetan Buddhism, we must make Tibetan Buddhism play a positive role in social development. Only in this way can it truly withstand the test of the times and not become impurities that should be removed in the "big waves".

In 2009, at the Second World Buddhist Congress, Choeky Jebu gave a speech in public on the issues faced by modern society, including environmental degradation, the huge gap between rich and poor, financial crisis, , conflicts and wars, and terrorist attacks.

The form and content of his speech shocked everyone and became a good talk for a while.

And Choekyi Jebu has also completed his mission, better promoting the concepts of Tibetan Buddhism and making Chinese culture have a greater influence in the world.

6-year-old Living Buddha

From an ordinary Tibetan child to the Panchen Erdeni, commonly known as "Gyaltsen Norbu", indeed Ji Gyebu, achieved a huge change in identity when he was 6 years old.

Panchen Erdeni is a title granted by the Qing government and is also an important reincarnation system of living Buddhas in the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhism believes that the human soul is immortal, "good people are reincarnated as humans and gods, and evil people fall into hell." If you practice virtue during your lifetime, you can control your own destiny and be reincarnated in your ideal place.

One of the typical cases is the founder of Buddhism Sakyamuni and his large number of important disciples. They all have long experiences of incarnations in previous lives and have reincarnated into various people or animals.

This concept of Tibetan Buddhism undoubtedly brings comfort to people who are suffering in this life and gives them the illusion that they can place their peace and happiness in the next life.

This gave Tibetan Buddhism the soil to take root in the turbulent land at that time, and because it spread rapidly among the people, it played a certain role in "stabilizing the situation" in society.

This also allowed Tibetan Buddhism to find "common interests" between religious circles and rulers in the complicated political struggles at that time, and thus received political support, and truly "taken root and sprout" in China.

The system of passing down living Buddhas is a system extended from this theory of "reincarnation" that "is in line with the interests of the rulers, is acceptable to the broad masses of the people, and achieves the purpose of maintaining the dominant position of the religious upper class in social and political life."

Among them, in the Tibetan area the Gelug sect , two major reincarnation systems of living Buddhas, mainly the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, have emerged.

The Panchen Lama is one of the highest leaders of Tibetan Buddhism.

After the previous Panchen Lama passes away, relevant personnel will use his passing photos, lake viewing results and divination results to deduce the general direction of the birth of the reincarnated soul boy, and secretly search for him according to religious rituals.

Therefore, when the 10th Panchen Erdeni Choekyi Gyaltsen died of a sudden heart attack on Tashilhunpo Temple in Shigatse on January 28, 1989 due to overwork, the search for his reincarnated soul boy was quickly put on the agenda.

Four days before his death, the 10th Panchen Lama specified the method for identifying the reincarnated soul boy of the living Buddha, which was "drawing lots from the golden urn" .

Under such circumstances, in June 1989, the search for the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama was put on the agenda.

Tashilhunpo Monastery has sent two groups of eminent monks and living Buddhas to the two sacred lakes deep in the snow-capped mountains, which are considered to be "the places where the soul of Pantai Lhamo, the most effective protector of Tibet, resides" to view the holy relics.

Based on the sign that the 10th Panchen Lama was facing east when he passed away, and what he saw during his two visits to the lake, the eminent monks determined that the reincarnation of the soul boy was in the east or northeast of Tashilhunpo Monastery, and that the soul boy's animal sign was between snake, horse, and sheep.

Therefore, in August 1989, the central government allocated special funds to support the search for the reincarnated soul boy of Panchen Lama.

After several years of searching, in 1994, senior monks from Tashilhunpo Monastery and members of the Panchen Lama search team visited 46 counties in 5 provinces and regions and found a total of 28 boys with supernatural characteristics.

Among them, the three boys have the most obvious supernatural characteristics and are determined to be the most likely candidates for the soul children.

They are Gyaltsen Norbu, a 6-year-old boy born in Jiali County, Nagqu Prefecture, Gongsang Wangdui, a 7-year-old boy born in Amdo County, Nagqu Prefecture, and Ngawang Namzo, a 5-year-old boy born in Chengguan District, Lhasa City.

Finally, on November 29, 1995, at the Golden Urn Drawing Ceremony held at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Gyaltsen Norbu won the lottery.

He was also identified as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, and succeeded him as the 11th Panchen Erdeni.

Gyaltsen Norbu was born on February 13, 1990, as a child of an ordinary Tibetan family in Jiali County, Nagqu Prefecture, Tibet.

His father is Sonam Drakpa and his mother is Sangye Dolma. Both of them are ordinary Tibetans with primary school education.

If there were no accidents, according to his original destiny, Gyaltsen Norbu's life would be as ordinary as his parents' when he grew up.

But in 1994, the arrival of senior monks from Tashilhunpo Monastery and members of the Panchen Lama search team changed his life.

Gyaltsen Norbu will be noticed by them, which is related to the rumors about him circulating among the people.

Rumor has it that there is a white Tibetan regular script letter "A" on Gyaltsen Norbu's tongue. In Tibetan Buddhism, this is a sacred symbol and represents the incarnation of the Buddha.

Therefore, after hearing this rumor, the searchers specially came to Jiali County to verify and question Gyaltsen Norbu.

During this period, Gyaltsen Norbu showed special love for religious utensils and occasionally uttered words similar to the tone of the 10th Panchen Lama, which surprised the searchers.

After repeated verification and calculation, the search personnel selected him as one of several candidate boys.

This made it possible for Gyaltsen Norbu to win the lot in the golden urn drawing ceremony.

Therefore, after winning the lot at the Golden Urn Drawing Ceremony in 1995, with the approval of the State Council, the 6-year-old boy Gyaltsen Norbu became the 6-year-old Living Buddha Choeky Jebu, and he entered a new stage of life.

English Lecture

Buddhism's flow from India to China and its "acceptance" by the Chinese people are related to its efforts to integrate Chinese cultural elements and take root in Chinese cultural soil.

In the 21st century, Chinese culture has also achieved new development through inheritance and innovation. If Buddhism wants to continue to flourish, it must keep up with this change, adapt to the needs of the development of the times, and innovate in situation and content.

90’s living Buddha Choeji Jebu did this.

2009 was the 14th year that the 19-year-old Chen Jijiebu spent as the 11th Panchen Lama.

At this time, he has grown a lot compared to when he was just elected as the Panchen Lama.

On March 28 of this year, he "unexpectedly" spoke in English at the just-opened second World Buddhist Forum Conference, which aroused strong interest and attention from the participants.

The 2nd World Buddhist Forum was held in Lingshan, Wuxi, Jiangsu.

This conference was attended by more than 1,700 eminent monks, famous Buddhist scholars, dignitaries and people from all walks of life from nearly 50 countries and regions around the world.

Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee Lin Qinglin was also invited to attend the opening ceremony and delivered a speech at the meeting.

China has a Buddhist historical heritage of more than 2,000 years, and this forum is held in China.

The chairman of the bureau of the forum is Yicheng , president of Chinese Buddhist Association , Hsing Yun, founder of the International Buddha's Light Association, and Jue Guang of the Hong Kong Buddhist Federation. According to international practice and Buddhist rituals, the format of the forum is determined to be "an organic combination of conference speeches and open forums." During the period, exhibitions related to Chinese Buddhist culture will be launched, as well as some gift performances.

At this stage of the conference, the speaker was the 11th Panchen Erdeni Choeky Gyebu. The theme of the

conference is "Harmonious World, Harmony of All Destinies". At the conference, he focused on this theme and elaborated his views on the issues faced by modern society such as environmental degradation, the gap between rich and poor, financial crisis, conflicts and wars, and terrorist attacks, combined with Buddhist teachings.

Queji Jebu believes that while the high level of material civilization has brought convenience to people's lives, it has also brought some disasters to people, such as environmental degradation, the gap between rich and poor, financial crises, conflicts and wars, terrorist attacks, etc. These problems are increasing day by day.

He mentioned that these misfortunes "are caused by the human heart of many people who are ignorant of the source of suffering and happiness, are dissatisfied, have no kind intentions, etc."

After that, he mentioned the concept of karma and consequences, expressing the need to encourage and guide modern people to do more altruistic and good deeds, not to harm others, to be compassionate, to benefit all living beings, to protect the environment, to improve "inner science", and to obtain corresponding good results.

He said that helping people correct and eliminate various ills in today's society through Buddhist scriptures "is the glorious task of us Buddhists in the 21st century."

From this, he also led to the principle that Buddhists themselves should first study various Buddhist sutras and commentaries to achieve the same mind as the Buddha.

Queji Jiebu believes that Buddhism is "a wonderful medicine that eliminates the suffering of all sentient beings." In order for Buddhism to be inherited, protected, and promoted, and to achieve eternal existence, believers should abide by the clear rules and precepts and take the study of precepts as the fundamental foundation.

At the same time, he also mentioned that for the long-term survival and development of Buddhism, Buddhism should also carefully cultivate more outstanding successors of Buddhism, and various sects should also respect each other and live in harmony.

At the end of his speech, he gave his own suggestion, that is, in order to build a harmonious world through the harmony of many people, more similar forums can be held in the future to promote exchanges and learning between Buddhist culture .

Judging from the content of Choeky Jebu’s speech, his Buddhist attainments have obviously improved.

Salong Pingla, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Democratic Management Committee of Tashilhunpo Monastery, the main temple of the Panchen Lama, gave clear praise for Choeky Jebu's progress in an interview with reporters. He believed that he was extremely intelligent, highly savvy, diligent and eager to learn, and his Buddhist attainments were increasingly improving.

In fact, as the 11th Panchen Lama, Choeky Jebu shoulders the important task of inheriting and promoting Buddhist culture, so he himself must first understand and appreciate Buddhist culture.

Queji Jebu has fixed time for studying and debating scriptures every day, usually from 10 to 11:30 in the morning and from 4 to 5:30 in the afternoon. This is also the most important part of his daily life.

Chökyi Jebu’s sutra teacher is Jiangyang Gyatso. Every day they sit face to face in the Buddhist hall where several thangkas are hung and many sutras are placed, and they start one-on-one teaching.

Queji Jebu is usually able to gain a lot from this link, and he also forms his own opinions and insights while absorbing new knowledge.

Queji Jeb was able to speak at the Second Buddhist Conference focusing on social issues such as environmental degradation, the gap between rich and poor, financial crisis, conflicts and wars, and terrorist attacks, which was also inseparable from his daily study.

After lunch every day, until before 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he has free time.

Most of the time, he spends this time studying computers or reading various books.

These books include Tibetan Buddhist books, popular science books, magazines and newspapers. Through the computer, he also learned more about social trends and information.

It is through these understandings and studies that, over time, Choeky Jebu also mastered more knowledge in other aspects besides Buddhism. This gave him more knowledge reserves and was able to speak out on relevant social issues at the Second World Buddhist Conference.

This is also an important reason why the participants of the Second World Buddhist Congress praised Choekyi Jebu so much.

But what made them even more "unexpected and pleasantly surprised" was that Queji Jeb chose English as his speaking language, and he was "as fluent as speaking Chinese."

Chinese eminent monks and Buddhist scholars who attended the conference expressed surprise that Choeky Jeb was able to deliver a speech in internationally accepted English.

For example, the abbot Wuxiang of Wuxi Xiangfu Temple believes that Queji Jebu received a good education and not only had profound attainments in Buddhism, but also had high cultural knowledge and language skills.

He pointed out that Choeky Gyebu already has the ability to speak on behalf of the Tibetan Buddhist community in the world in English. "Directly using this internationally accepted prophecy to communicate with people will help foreigners understand the true situation of Tibetan Buddhism in China."

This is indeed the case.

English is the embodiment of internationalization. Jeb Chooji delivered a speech in English this time. He was mature and steady, which left a deep impression on the world.

Sri Lanka's Vice President of the University of Peredeniya, Abeygunaward na, who also attended the conference, said in an interview with reporters that he was surprised and happy that Choeky Jeb could give a speech in English, "so that I can better understand what he said."

In the world of Tibetan Buddhism in China, there are very few Buddhists who are proficient in English. Most of them focus on the study of Buddhist classics, while neglecting to integrate with the outside world and the international community. This is quite suspected of being "working behind closed doors."

Under such circumstances, the 19-year-old 11th Panchen Choekyi Jebu became one of the few exceptions. This was the result of his hard study, careful cultivation by his teachers, and the cordial care of the country and the government.

Queji Jebu needs to take two English classes every week, and the time of each English class is usually controlled at about one and a half hours.

The teacher who taught him English was an old Han teacher in his 60s named "Xu Lianbi" . In the

class, Queji Jebu communicated briefly with the teacher in English and read the text with the teacher. Sometimes his English was inaccurate, and he would notice it himself and laugh without waiting for the teacher to correct him.

Teacher Xu provided him with a relaxed classroom atmosphere, which was very conducive to building his confidence and interest in learning English from scratch.

And his own hard work and dedication have also paid off well for his efforts.

At least, Choeky Jebu’s Chinese, Tibetan and English skills are very good.

Development and Growth

Queji Jebu’s daily life is relaxed, orderly, busy and fulfilling. While

is receiving traditional Buddhist education, he will also study Chinese, English, mathematics, history, science and other courses to master as much knowledge as possible and enrich his experience in many aspects.

Queji Jebu has sufficient internal drive for self-learning, and he studies seriously and hard. Usually in half a year, he can learn what other monks take a year to learn, which makes his growth and progress more rapid and obvious.

In fact, whether at home or abroad, Choeky Gyebu, as the 11th Panchen Lama, has always been regarded as an important figure on the Tibetan issue.

On the one hand, domestically, Choeky Gyalpo is selected by the Chinese government as "an important link to strengthen Tibetans' loyalty to the central government." Under official arrangements, he is accelerating his pace to the forefront.

For example, in February 2010, this young Tibetan Buddhist leader took his first social position and became the vice president of the Buddhist Association of China.

In the same month, he was also co-opted as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, active in politics as China's first "post-90s" member.

By 2013, Queji Jebu had participated in four CPPCC meetings as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

He said that through personal experience, he has a deeper understanding of his sacred responsibility as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which is to use his own abilities and talents to make suggestions and achievements for the country.

In 2021, the Fourth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held. As a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Vice President of the Buddhist Association of China, and President of the Tibetan Branch of the Buddhist Association of China, he accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service in Beijing. In the interview with

, he mentioned that people in the Tibetan Buddhist community should have a strong sense of the Chinese nation's community and be servers, builders and contributors in the new era.

He also emphasized that no matter how big the external interference is, it will not affect "our confidence, determination and perseverance in supporting the leadership of the Communist Party of China and taking the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics."

For a long time, Choeky Gyebu has been consciously exerting his influence and guidance in Tibet, especially the Tibetan Buddhist community, and doing his best to strengthen the central government's management of Tibet.

In addition, Choeky Gyebu also said that "to be a good monk and nun, you must first be a good citizen", and actively promoted the positive ideas in Tibetan Buddhist teachings about "promoting good and suppressing evil, equality and tolerance, and alleviating the poor and suffering", guiding the wisdom and strength of the believers to develop production, get rich through hard work, and improve life, and contributed to social stability and development.

When he is able, Queji Jebu is still finding ways to give back to society.

For example, in the more than ten years after his enthronement, he made several donations to disaster areas.

In 2008, he hosted a prayer meeting at the Yonghe Temple in Beijing to pray for the compatriots who died in the Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake.

In October 2021, after receiving the "Gaqin" degree, Choeky Gyebu also donated all 1 million yuan in gifts from all walks of life to the frontline people on the Tibetan border to consolidate the results of poverty alleviation, help rural revitalization, and strive to strengthen border security.

On the other hand, overseas, Choekyi Gyalpo is also using good professional English to promote Tibetan Buddhism and eliminate many misunderstandings about Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.

For example, when foreign anti-China forces used the issue of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism to attack China's ethnic and religious policies and strategies for governing Tibet, especially when the United States also passed the Tibet-related bill and wanted to systematically interfere in China's Tibetan affairs, Choekyi Gyebu also gave his clear attitude.

He said that overseas anti-China forces do not care about the Tibetan people or Tibetan Buddhism. They are just pursuing their own group interests under false disguises and want to turn these into political bargaining chips.

He also further mentioned, "This situation can be seen clearly by anyone with a sound mind and an objective stance." "It is the Chairman, the Party Central Committee and the people of the country who truly care about the Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhism."

It can be said that Quegyi Jebu has played his role and influence well, and made due contributions to enhancing the outside world's understanding of Tibet and promoting the development and stability of Tibet.

Today, he is working on a daily basis at the Tibetan Branch of the Buddhist Association, actively promoting the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism.

Reference

1, The emergence of the hereditary Panchen Lama and the reincarnation process of successive Panchen Lamas (CNKI)
2, The "unexpected" English speech of the 11th Panchen Lama aroused strong interest from all parties (Xinhuanet)