With it the communists chose their own Panchen Lama, the Yellow Hat sect's second-most-revered reincarnation.

ECONOMIST: Banyan: Splittism on the roof of the world | The

China refused to accept him, keeping him hidden and appointing its own candidate as Panchen Lama instead.

ECONOMIST: China and Tibet

All this was in sharp contrast to the years of intrigue and acrimony that followed the death in 1989 of the second-ranking Tibetan lama, the Panchen.

ECONOMIST: The boy lama��s long and mysterious journey