Prayers for Panchen Lama's release mark 'International Tibet Solidarity Day' in Dharamsala

Observing the 18th year of disappearance of their spiritual leader, the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Cheoki Nyima, scores of exiled Tibetans participated in prayer meetings here on Friday to mark the International Tibet Solidarity Day.

International Tibet Solidarity Day marks the anniversary of the disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Cheoki Nyima who went missing in 1995.

Panchen Lama is the second highest religious leader after the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, who is being kept under secret detention by the Chinese authorities.

Central Tibetan administration official Siring Wangcho said: " The Central Tibetan administration has proclaimed this day as a day of International Solidarity Day. On this same day, the Panchen Lama was lost under the Chinese regime, and the Panchen Lama's situation symbolises the repressive policies in China. So, that is why we are having a prayer service," said Wangcho.

More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule since 2009 across a large swathe of ethnically Tibetan regions, with most of them dying from their injuries.

Tibetans have also urged the Chinese Government to release the Panchen Lama so that he could be reunited with the thousands of followers awaiting his release.

The Panchen Lama turned 24 on April 24 and Tibetans and Buddhists all over the world are deeply concerned about his well-being and his whereabouts.

Wangcho urged the international community to lend assistance for the cause of Tibet.

"We appeal for greater support for the cause of Tibet and we appeal to the international community to pressure their leadership to pressure the Chinese government to have a dialogue with the Tibetan administration," he said.

The 10th Panchen Lama passed away mysteriously in 1989 and his reincarnation, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was recognized by the Dalai Lama in 1995 at the age of six.

Tibet's current spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had announced his own choice of a six-year-old boy, who was taken away by authorities and had since disappeared from public view, creating a crisis of legitimacy for devout Tibetans.

Till date no one knows his whereabouts or his condition.

The 11th Panchen Lama spoke in Tibetan when he made his debut on the world stage at the first World Buddhist Forum in China in 2006 and in English when he graced the second in 2009.

Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950. After the Dalai Lama fled, the 10th Panchen Lama stayed on and was initially seen as a collaborator, but it later emerged that he spent over a decade either in prison or under house arrest for criticizing Beijing.