Agya Rinpoche is visiting Taiwan for the first time and his visit to Taiwan is to give a series Buddhist teachings to Chinese Buddhists. Agya Rinpoce made headlines when he defected to the United States a few years ago from China, and he is one the highest ranking Tibetan lamas defected to the United States. He says his reason for defection was that the Chinese authorities were pressuring him to recognize the boy Beijing has chosen as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama who died in 1989. Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking Tibetan Lama in Buddhist hierarchy.