The amazing tale of Panchen Lama

Tibetan exiles are calling for China to release a high-ranking monk who disappeared 20 years ago when he was just six years old.

The boy was detained by the Chinese authorities just three days after the Dalai Lama declared him to be the reincarnated Panchen Lama.

The Panchen Lama is the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism. Many consider him to be one of the world's longest-serving political prisoners.

China has refused provide details of the whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.

In 1995 it anointed its own Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, who while popular among some Tibetans has been described by exiles as a "stooge of the atheist Chinese Communist Party government".

The Dalai Lama, whom Beijing sees as a separatists threat, has in the past strongly criticised China for "brazen meddling in the system of reincarnation".

Tibet is governed as an autonomous region of China. Beijing claims a centuries-old sovereignty over the region, but many Tibetans argue that Tibet was colonised.