Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Panchen Lama: Inflated figures

Yesterday, on this blog, I mentioned the visit of Gyaltsen Norbu, the Panchen Lama selected by Beijing to Qinghai Province (from June 30 to July 9).
I wrote that it looked like very few people attended his sermons.
Now, a regional TV station of Qinghai Province affirms: "It's estimated there were more than 100,000 devotees received blessings from the Panchen Lama", adding:"The welcoming ceremonies were all spontaneous. Thousands of devotees held the incense-burning ritual, threw papers with images of horses and sutra, and presented knadas to show their respect to the Panchen Lama."
The truth is probably in between a few and 100,000.
In any case, the figure 100,000 is higher than the entire Tibetan population of the area.

Let us see what happens during the lama's annual visit to the Tashilhunpo.

No comments: