Tashilhunpo's own telling of the 1995 succession dispute ends with recognition; what has happened in the three decades since is a story of two absences answered two different ways. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the six year old the Dalai Lama recognized, has not been seen in public since Chinese authorities took him and his family into what officials called protective custody days after that announcement. Exile Tibetan groups, human rights bodies and, more recently, the European Parliament have pressed Beijing for three decades to disclose his whereabouts and confirm his wellbeing, marking each of his birthdays with renewed appeals that have gone unanswered by any independent verification.
Chinese authorities have made their own statements over those same years rather than staying silent. Officials said in 2007 that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was living an ordinary life and did not wish to be disturbed, and said again in 2020 that he had completed his education and held a job, statements exile organizations and foreign governments have been unable to confirm through any independent contact.
Gyaincain Norbu, the boy Chinese authorities installed at Tashilhunpo the same year using the Qing era golden urn lottery, has followed a public path instead. Now an adult in his thirties, he holds senior positions within China's state sanctioned Buddhist establishment, meets periodically with China's top leadership, and travels on religious visits that Tibetan advocacy groups abroad have organized protests against, rejecting his standing as Panchen Lama even as Chinese state media presents him as its undisputed holder. Tashilhunpo has functioned as his monastic seat throughout, host to a dispute neither side has revisited nor resolved.