Kumbum Monastery
When the Ninth Panchen Lama died in 1937, two simultaneous searches for the tenth Panchen Lama produced two competing candidates, with the Dalai Lama's officials selecting a boy from Xikang and the Panchen Lama's officials picking Gonpo Tseten. The Republic of China government, then embroiled in the Chinese Civil War, declared its support for Tseten on June 3, 1949. Chinese Nationalist governor Ma Bufang allowed Kumbum Monastery to be totally self-governed by Tseten, now called Gyaltsen, while the 14th Dalai Lama's government refused to recognize him.