He is chief spiritual adviser to the Dalai Lama. Panchen Lama means Great Scholar. It is Tibetan tradition for the Dalai Lama to act as teacher of the new incarnation of the Panchen Lama and vice versa. The outcome of the dispute is of great importance to the Tibetan nation and to Buddhists worldwide. After the death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama proposes sending a religious delegation to the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Tibet for the purpose of offering prayers and performing a traditional Tibetan death ritual for the late Panchen Lama.
China rejects the request.
China announces the formation of a search committee to find the 11th Panchen Lama. Chadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, is appointed head of the China-picked search committee. After six years of searching and final verification using ancient Tibetan Buddhist traditions, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama announces his choice of Gendun Choekyi Nyima as the recipient of the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995. The boy is one of 20 children chosen in a first round as possible reincarnations by the China-appointed search committee. Within days of the Dalai Lama's announcement, reports surface of the disappearance of the six-year old boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, his family, Abbot Rinpoche and about 50 other monks and laypeople.