Beijing, China - Amid chanting of hymns and sutras, a five-year-old Tibetan boy chosen to head a Buddhist sect in Tibet was "enthroned" as the sixth 'Living Buddha' on Monday with the approval of the Chinese government.
The boy was enthroned as sixth 'Living Buddha' Dezhub according to Tibetan Buddhist rituals at Zagor Monastery in Tibet's Shannan Prefecture, about a month after he was selected through a draw of lot, to be the reincarnation of the fifth Living Buddha Dezhub who died in March 2000.
At the inaugural ceremony, Losang Jigme, Tibet's top official in charge of religious affairs, read out the regional government's approval of the enthronement, official Xinhua news agency reported today.
As hundreds of monks chanted sutras to pray for peace and happiness, the crimson-robed 'Living Buddha' paid his respects to statues of Lord Buddha at the monastery before he was seated on the throne.
The solemn-looking 5-year-old sat straight when he was adorned with a yellow cassock and yellow hat, the symbols of the Gelugpa school, also known as the Yellow Sect, one of the four streams of Tibetan Buddhism.
The young Living Buddha, whose secular name is Losang Doje, was born in Shannan on November 30, 2005. He was chosen as a candidates after years of searching by senior monks in tune with religious practice and traditions.
He was selected as the reincarnation and was tonsured by Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu, the Chinese government appointed 11th Panchen Lama, in Lhasa on July 4. The Panchen Lama also gave him the religious name Dezhub Jamyang Sherab Palde.
Tibetan Buddhism has three most important monks, the Dalai Lama (political and spiritual head), Panchen Lama (regarded as second in command) and Karmapa Lama (head of largest Buddhist sub-sect Karma Kagyu).
Besides these three, the Himalayan region has hundreds of living Buddhas regarded as eminent monks, some of whom are heads of various sects of the Tibetan Buddhist schools of thoughts.