The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu is seen on the Kalachakra ritual in Xigaze, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 24, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Chogo)
Giving four hour non-stop speech every afternoon for four days on the meadow outside his summer residence in Xigaze, the 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu has strongly impressed the 100,000-strong attendees to the first kalachakra teachings in Tibet in 60 years.
Through dozens of loud-speakers, Panchen Lama's voice resounds across the 112,000-square-meter venue, occasionally echoed by the chorus chanting of the devotees as the ritual has required.
"You have to be very attentive to Panchen Rinpoche's voice and absorbed in getting what he offers, because this is a very precious and powerful teaching," said Losang Gyaltsen, from the Champa Ling Monastery of Chamdo.
Together with 5,000 monks and nuns from Qinghai, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Tibet, he is one of the 100 lamas attending the four-day kalachakra ritual concluded on Sunday. Meaning the wheel of time, the ritual involves a series of teaching and initiations that help people through the cycle of life.
With a Tho Rm Pa (doctorate) degree from the High-Level Tibetan Buddhism College of China in Beijing, Losang Gyaltsen said he had no chance to learn from Panchen Lama in person before and never received a kalachakra initiation. "This public teaching, therefore, is particularly precious," said he.
BLESSING FROM LINEAGE
A qualified guru to give the Kalachakra initiation must not only be versed in exoteric Buddhism but also have received pure initiation from an eligible vajraayana teacher and practiced what he learned in strict accordance with the relevant requirements, according to Tsering Tobgye, a Kalachakra teacher with the Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery that hosted the event.
"Not every lama having received the teachings is eligible to give the initiations. Panchen Lama has met all above-mentioned conditions and is a qualified guru to give the teachings," said he.
At the age of 12, Panchen Lama got the initiation from guru Jamyang Gyatso of the Labrang Lamasery in northwest China' s Gansu Province in 2002. Guru Jamyang Gyatso got the initiation from Guru Rakho Jigme Trinley Gyatso who was the scripture teacher of the 10th Panchen Lama and got the initiation from the 9th Panchen Lama.
Norga Tenzin Trinley, scripture teacher with the Zhaxi Lhunbo, said that the kalachakra lineage of Panchen Lama was pure.
In the beginning of the teachings on Friday afternoon, the 26-year-old Panchen Lama expressed his gratitude to the lineage masters.
Dawa Tsering, a monk and president of the Buddhism Association of Shannan City of Tibet, was present to receive the kalachakra teachings. He said he was very grateful to Panchen Rinpoche's confident and thorough explanation of the teachings.
"I think he is an honor of the Tibetan Buddshim and as followers we feel blessed," said Dawa Tsering.
