Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

In 1978, after giving up his vows of an ordained monk, he traveled around China, looking for a wife to start a family. He began courting Li Jie, a soldier and medical student at Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an. At the time, the Lama had no money and was still blacklisted by the party, but the wife of Deng Xiaoping and widow of Zhou Enlai saw the symbolic value of a marriage between a Tibetan Lama and a Han woman. They personally intervened to wed the couple in a large ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in 1979. One year later, the Panchen Lama was given the Vice Chairmanship of the National People's Congress and other political posts, and he was fully politically rehabilitated by 1982. Li Jie bore a daughter in 1983, named Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo.

Early in 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama returned to Tibet to re-inter some of the recovered bones from the graves of the previous Panchen Lamas, graves that had been destroyed during the destruction of Tashilhunpo in 1959. He died from a heart attack in Shigatse at the age of 51, on 28 January, just five days after delivering a speech in Tibet in which he said: "Since liberation, there has certainly been development, but the price paid for this development has been greater than the gains." Although the official cause of death was said to have been from a heart attack, some Tibetans suspect foul play. In 2011, the Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing declared that Hu Jintao had masterminded the death of the 10th Panchen Lama. The 10th Panchen Lama's death sparked an unprecedented six-year dispute over his assets amounting to $20 million between his wife and daughter and Tashilhunpo Monastery. The Dalai Lama was invited by the Buddhist Association of China to attend the Panchen Lama's funeral and to take the opportunity to contact Tibet's religious communities. Because of the short notice, The Dalai Lama was unable to attend the invitation. and new disputes materialized between the Chinese government and supporters of the Dalai Lama.

Many legends and conspiracy theories spread among Tibetans about the Panchen Lama's death. According to one story, he foresaw his own death in a message to his wife on their last meeting. In another, a rainbow appeared in the sky before his death. Some people, including the Dalai Lama, believe that he was poisoned by his own medical staff. Supporters of this theory cite remarks the Panchen Lama made on 23 January to high-ranking officials and that were published in the People's Daily and the China Daily. The message criticized the excesses of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet and praised the reform and opening up of the 1980s. His daughter Rinzinwangmo refused to comment on the conspiracy theories, attributing his early death to his generally poor health, extreme weight gain, and chronic sleep deprivation.