Beijing: Amid chanting of hymns and
sutras, a five-year-old Tibetan boy chosen to head a Buddhist
sect in Tibet was "enthroned" as the sixth `Living Buddha` on Monday with the approval of the Chinese government.
The boy was enthroned as sixth `Living Buddha` Dezhub
according to Tibetan Buddhist rituals at Zagor Monastery in
Tibet`s Shannan Prefecture, about a month after he was
selected through a draw of lot, to be the reincarnation of the
fifth Living Buddha Dezhub who died in March 2000.
At the inaugural ceremony, Losang Jigme, Tibet`s top
official in charge of religious affairs, read out the regional
government`s approval of the enthronement, official Xinhua
news agency reported today.
As hundreds of monks chanted sutras to pray for peace
and happiness, the crimson-robed `Living Buddha` paid his
respects to statues of Lord Buddha at the monastery before he
was seated on the throne.
The solemn-looking 5-year-old sat straight when he was
adorned with a yellow cassock and yellow hat, the symbols of
the Gelugpa school, also known as the Yellow Sect, one of the
four streams of Tibetan Buddhism.
The young Living Buddha, whose secular name is Losang
Doje, was born in Shannan on November 30, 2005. He was chosen
as a candidates after years of searching by senior monks in
tune with religious practice and traditions.
He was selected as the reincarnation and was tonsured
by Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu, the Chinese government appointed
11th Panchen Lama, in Lhasa on July 4. The Panchen Lama also
gave him the religious name Dezhub Jamyang Sherab Palde.
Tibetan Buddhism has three most important monks, the
Dalai Lama (political and spiritual head), Panchen Lama
(regarded as second in command) and Karmapa Lama (head of
largest Buddhist sub-sect Karma Kagyu).
Besides these three, the Himalayan region has hundreds
of living Buddhas regarded as eminent monks, some of whom are
heads of various sects of the Tibetan Buddhist schools of
thoughts.
PTI
