The Panchen Lama (often transliterated as Pänchen Lama) or the Panchen Erdeni, is the one of the two highest ranking lamas (together with the Dalai Lama) in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) School of Tibetan Buddhism (the school which controlled Tibet from the 16th century until the Communist takeover). The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning 'Great Scholar', is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit paṇḍita (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great), = Mahapandita, 'Great Scholar', but the Fifth Dalai Lama appointed his tutor Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten head of Tashilhunpo Monastery and exclusively reserved the title Panchen for him, and this title has continued to be given to his successors and, posthumously, to his predecessors starting with Khedrup Je.

There is a controversy about who is the true present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama: the People's Republic of China asserts it is Qoigyijabu, while the Tibetan Government in Exile maintains it is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was arrested at the age of six years by the Chinese in 1995. He then became the world's youngest political prisoner.