A Six-year-old boy from northern Tibet was determined in Lhasa on November 29 as the reincarnated soul boy for the 10th Bainqen Lama by drawing lots from a golden urn.

On the afternoon of November 29, the State Council approved the chosen soul boy as the llth Bainqen Lama in accordance with historical precedence.

The boy, Gyaincain Norbu from Nagqu Prefecture, was chosen from among three candidates at a ceremony presented by State Councillor Lou Gan and other representatives of the central government. Several hundred leading religious people, including members of the search group for the reincarnate one, attended the ceremony.

The lots-drawing ceremony was presided over jointly by Chairman Gyaincain Norbu of the Tibet Autonomous Region,who was also special commissioner of the State Council, and Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Council Religious Affairs Bureau.

The 10th Bainqen Lama died on January 28, 1989. Three days after his death, the State Council decided on the funeral arrangements for and reincarnation of the Bainqen Lama.

The decision stipulated that a search group consisting of major Living Buddhas, abbots of monasteries and senior monks from the Tashilhungpo Monastery should select three candidates for the reincarnation of the Bainqen Lama through divinations, lake observation and a secret search.

(This article on page 4, No. 51, 1995)