Religion: Tanchu in Lhasa

Into Lhasa, bleak Forbidden City of windswept Tibet, last week a swaying caravan brought home Tibet’s “living god.” This 14th Dalai Lama, sovereign pontiff of Tibet, a bright, intelligent lad of five named Tanchu, had been discovered in western China (TIME, Aug. 21). Instead of taking him direct to Lhasa, the caravan went some hundreds of miles out of the way to Chungking, China’s capital, where an attendant held the button-eyed god aloft before the populace. Thence representatives of the Chinese Government accompanied the caravan to Lhasa.

Yellow-robed Je Chen, Tibet’s regent until Tanchu reaches his majority at 18, greeted the reincarnated pontiff with due ceremony. From a golden bowl the regent drew one of numerous bamboo slips which, if a proper choice had been made, would bear the name of the new Dalai Lama. Sure enough, it bore Tanchu’s. This ritual the visiting Chinese watched contentedly. By establishing a Chinese as Dalai Lama they had, for what it was worth, underscored the influence China has long claimed over chill, far, out-of-the-world Tibet.