To 47-year-old Tibetan Norbu, losing a precious day of farmwork in the busy season was a price worth paying to get a blessing from the 11th Panchen Lama, a living Buddha in his heart.

The farmer, who lives in Xaitongoin County of the Tibet Autonomous Region, got up early on Friday morning and traveled to Xigaze, a city 80 kilometers from his home, to see the Tibetan Buddhist leader at Tashilunpo Monastery, the Panchen Lama residence.

"I was delighted to get the blessing from the living Buddha again," said Norbu after the Panchen Lama touched his head.

The farmer said he keeps the portrait of the 11th Panchen Lama, which he managed to get when the high monk performed the head-touching ritual last year, in his home together with those of the 10th Panchen Lama and the Lotus-Born Monk, an Indian Buddhist master who spread the religion to Tibet.

Norbu was one of 2,000 believers to be blessed by the Panchen Lama from 10 to 12 a.m. on Friday.

They had to queue to enter the hall where the ritual was held. After being touched, most stayed in the hall praying until lamas came to persuade them to make room for those waiting outside.

For two hours, a smiling Panchen Lama kept touching the heads of believers and giving his blessing.

Seventy-six-year-old Yungzhung said it was the third time she had seen the living buddha.

"It is a joy for me to be able to see the living Buddha in my heart a third time," the old woman said, holding her palms together and praying towards the throne of the Panchen Lama.

"I got up early and washed my head to see his majesty," said the granny dressed in traditional Tibetan costume.

The 17-year-old Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, was approved by the central government as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama in November 1995 after a lot drawing ceremony among three candidates in Jokhang Temple in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa.

Drawing lots from a golden urn to decide the final choice of the reincarnation of a high lama has long been a tradition in Tibetan Buddhism, and the custom of seeking approval from the central government dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The young lama studies Buddhism in Beijing and frequently visits Tibet and other Tibetan ethnic areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces to hold religious rituals.

When he visited Nagqu in the north of the Tibet Autonomous Region in August, more than 20,000 believers, mostly herdsmen, came to receive a blessing from the living Buddha, who spent a day and a half in their midst.

The young Tibetan Buddhist leader dismounted from his throne to touch the heads of disabled believers in wheelchairs.

Since his ordination in 1995, the living buddha has blessed about 300,000 people.

Source: Xinhua