China/Tibet: Thubten Chokyi Nyima, the 9th Panchen Lama (1883–1937). Photo by Sven Hedin (1865-1952), 1907. The Panchen Lama is the highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (the sect which controlled western Tibet from the 16th century until the imposition of Chinese sovereignty in 1951). The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning 'great scholar', is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit pandita (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great).

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Size: 3500px × 5187px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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