Choekyi Gyaltsen

Choekyi Gyaltsen
10th Panchen Lama
Xth Panchen Lama by Claude-Max Lochu
Reign	3 June 1949 – 28 January 1989
Coronation	11 June 1949
Predecessor	Thubten Chökyi Nyima, 9th Panchen Lama
Successor	Gedhun Choekyi Nyima or Gyaltsen Norbu
Born	19 February 1938 (1938-02-19) Xunhua County, Qinghai Province, Republic of China
Died	28 January 1989 (1989-01-29) (age 51) Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China
Burial	30 August 1993 Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse
Spouse	Li Jie
Issue	Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo
Full name Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen
Tibetan	བློ་བཟང་ཕྲིན
Wylie translit.	blo bzang phrin las lhun grub chos kyi rgyal mtshan
transcription (PRC)	Lobsang Chinlai Lhünzhub Qoigyi Gyaincain
THDL	Lozang Trinlé Lhündrup Chökyi Gyeltsen
House	Panchen Lama
Father	Gonpo Tseten
Mother	Sonam Drolma

Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen (19 February 1938 – 28 January 1989) was the tenth Panchen Lama of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism. He was often referred to simply as Choekyi Gyaltsen (which can be Choekyi Gyaltse, Choskyi Gyantsen, etc.), although this is also the name of several other notable figures in Tibetan history.

The 10th Panchen Lama was born Gonpo Tseten on 19 February 1938 in today's Xunhua Salar Autonomous County of Qinghai, to Gonpo Tseten and Sonam Drolma. When the Ninth Panchen Lama died in 1937, two simultaneous searches for the tenth Panchen Lama produced two competing candidates, with the government in Lhasa (who had selected a boy from Xikang) and the Ninth Panchen Lama's officials (who picked Tseten) in conflict. The Republic of China government, then embroiled in the Chinese Civil War, declared its support for Tseten on 3 June 1949. Guan Jiyu, the head of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, joined Kuomintang Governor of Qinghai Ma Bufang in presiding over Tseten's enthronement on 11 June as Choekyi Gyaltsen at Kumbum Monastery. The Dalai Lama's government in Lhasa still refused to recognize Gyaltsen.

The Kuomintang wanted to use Gyaltsen to create a broad anti-Communist base in Southwest China. The Kuomintang formulated a plan where 3 Khampa divisions would be assisted by the Panchen Lama to oppose the Communists.

When Lhasa denied Gyaltsen the territory the Panchen Lama traditionally controlled, he asked Ma Bufang to help him lead an army against Tibet in September 1949. Ma tried to persuade the Panchen Lama to come with the Kuomintang government to Taiwan when the Communist victory approached, but the Panchen Lama declared his support for the Communist People's Republic of China instead. The Panchen Lama, unlike the Dalai Lama, sought to exert control in decision making. In addition, the Dalai Lama regime was tottering, and his government displayed negligence in affairs, the Kuomintang using this to their advantage to expand into the Lhasa regime of the Dalai Lama.