Chadrel Rinpoche

Chadrel Rinpoche (Tibetan: བྱ་བྲལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wylie: bya bral rin po che ; born 1940 in Shigatse), also known as his dharma name Jampa Trinley (Tibetan: བྱམས་པ་ཕྲིན་ལས་, Wylie: byams pa phrin las ), is a Gelug lama of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1954, he joined the Tashilhunpo Monastery at the age of 15. He was a close disciple of Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama. Later, he became the khenpo of the Tashilhunpo Monastery.[1] Chadrel Rinpoche was instructed to lead the Chinese efforts to install a substitute 11th Panchen Lama, but he instead aided efforts to locate the authentic reincarnation, and to recognize Gedhun Choyki Nyima in 1995. As a result, he was arrested, imprisoned, the held under house arrest until his reported death from a suspicious poisoning in 2011. He was also a Member of the 7th and 8th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Chadrel Rinpoche or Jadrel Jampa Thinley Rinpoche
བྱ་བྲལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་
Chadrel Rinpoche
Member of the 7th, 8th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office April 1988 – 14 June 1996
Chairman	Li Xiannian→Li Ruihuan
Personal details
Born	1940 (age 79–80) Shigatse, Tibet
Disappeared	18 May 1995 (age 55) Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Status	Missing for 25 years, 1 month and 6 days

After the death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989, Chadrel Rinpoche was appointed as the deputy head of the Chinese government's Panchen Lama search committee, created as an effort to control the reincarnation of lamas and destroy authentic Tibetan buddhist lineages. Gyayag Rinpoche, was the head of the Chinese search committee but died in 1990, and Chadrel Rinpoche succeeded him. It's reported that Chadrel Rinpoche was communicating with those following the authentic recognition process.

On 14 May 1995, the 14th Dalai Lama recognized Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama. The Chinese government reacted severely: After they kidnapped the Panchen Lama on 17 May 1995, Chadrel Rinpoche was arrested in Chengdu on 18 May during his return from Beijing to Shigatse, four days after the recognition was announced. On 14 June 1996, Chadrel Rinpoche was expelled from the CPPCC. After being forcibly detained for two years, on 08 May 1997, he was sentenced to six year's imprisonment[2] at Chuandong prison in Sichuan province, and three year's deprivation of political rights for "separatism, revealing state secrets".[3] He sat in a hunger strike at Chuangdong against the unjust verdict. Chadrel Rinpoche was released in 2002,[4] but then re-incarcerated under house arrest[5] for an additional 10 years. Reports state his location was unknown, while others state he was held at a Chinese military camp near Llasa. Chadrel Rinpoche's secretary-general for the 1989 search committee, Jampa Chungla, was also incarcerated and put under house arrest, and later died from a continuous denial of medical care.[6]

Chadrel Rinpoche was reported in 2011 to have died from a suspicious poisoning, at the age of 72.[6] Reports from China allege his status is unknown.[7]