Tibetan Buddhist monasteries accept children from 7 years of age and up as novices to receive a Buddhist education and eventually become monks. Once admitted to the monastery, the boys are not allowed to leave and return to lay life until they are 21, which is considered the age at which the are able to make responsible decisions about their lives. If they try to escape and return to their families for any reason, they are hunted down by "warrior monks" and forcibly returned to the monasteries.

According to an eyewitness account by a lama in the Tibetan tradition, and to a Public Television report in the US in the late 1990's, it is common for the little boys to suffer sexual abuse and rape for years by the older celibate monks.

As can be expected, many of the boys are severely traumatized, and many leave the monasteries in their early 20's. In the secular world, however, they are only qualified for the most menial jobs, because the education in the monasteries only covers Tibetan calligraphy, reading and basic math, although the Dalai Lama is trying to introduce a more modern curriculum in some monasteries. (According to several sources, the Buddhist education amounts to daily memorization of prayers and texts, without any explanation as to the content. Only 10% of older novices are deemed worthy or capable of learning the principles and theory propounded by the texts.) As young and even middle-aged men, the survivors of this institutionalized violence can have difficulty forming healthy relationships with the opposite sex, be prone to emotional instability due to unresolved Post-Traumatic Stress, and experience employment difficulties.

What to do about this serious, chronic and institutionalized violation of children's human rights? Appealing to the Dalai Lama, who was raised in a sheltered environment and is most likely oblivious to the problem, could only address the problem in the monasteries belonging to the order of which he is a member--the Gelug. Possibly the only way to remedy the problem in all Tibetan monasteries would be to appeal to India's members of Parliament, to enact a law prohibiting the entry of minors into the monkhood.

Anyone with information on this problem or with ideas regarding solutions is encouraged to respond here. The link below provides more information.

[lamashree.org]

(Somber)

It is to greatly to be feared that even the high lamas and tulkus and rinpoches may be at risk of being 'used children'.

If they escape being used sexually they are still, following 'Misstyk's description, surrounded by this culture of institutionalized/normalized child abuse. Those who tutor the future throne holders will have been surrounded by this.

So it echoes the culture of normalized child abuse and normalized denial we have discovered to exist in the Catholic methods of priest formation and in too many cases, deformation.

...another one of my idealized world views broken. Shit. Et tu Lama?

Sad isn't it Vera.

I am reading a book, "History of the Tantric Religion" by N.N. Bhattacharyya, a scholar. He said that the tantrics are in the Mahayana texts. I know of no Mahayana Buddhist group that uses them, although I read on a forum that some Zen Buddhists from Asia do.

I wish some who had been students of the Dalai Lama would speak out one way or another. The Commentary on the Kalacakra Tanta that I have speak of using children as young as 12 years old but as far as I can tell, it is only in the visualizations. They do not say how young a consort can be, but over 21 isn't good. This text also talks about the Inversion Law that the Trimondis mention where whatever is moral, you go against. So it says that it is true that the Buddha said to not even be alone with a woman, to not take intoxicants, etc. but that was for the monks, the lamas are to have sex and drink alcohol, and it is a root downfall if you say that you are too pure to do this. Other texts say that you can even kill. It is said to give children alcohol or sweets to get her to comply. So I imagine that the young monks went through this to become lamas.

I noticed that New Jonang has a school for young children in either Tibet or India, and on the video they were calling them monks to be. I was in New Jonang and didn't even know what was going on, and it was denied when I found out. So the secrecy is there. I was told it was not sexual, that Westerners don't understand it, and when they read the books they misunderstand it as being sexual. Well, there is no way that you can't read it and not take it any other way.

Tantra is the path of transgression of the normal social mores of the particular time, and it does have a validity in questioning things that are seen as traditional and so sacred simply because they have always been done that way.
New paths aren't forged by sticking to the old ones---but this does presuppose a very rigorous and nuanced understanding of the undertaking ie, you have to thoroughly know the rules of any particular discipline before you take it upon yourself to forget them and go breaking rules and social taboos that have been in place for millenia for very good social reasons.

Of course this sets up a double standard, and one that is based on the real imbalace of worldly power.
What is forbidden for the lower orders can be secretly indulged in by the powerful higher ups--the chosen ones--and when caught they try to excuse their personal indulgences by insisting that they are motivated by higher, holier motives and so are sanctified.
And of course the lower orders, by virtue of their 'lack of understanding' and reliance on these same higher-ups to decide what is seemly and what is not and for whom anything in particular is seemly, are expected to swallow these bull-shit rationalisations with gratitude.
For the lower orders tantra is about 'visualisation', for the corrupt it is the pay-off of power and an excuse for every license.

The notion of 'purity' is another very tricky area. None of us is pure because we have base human nature and always will have.
I could con myself that I am pure and maybe con a few others to believe that I am the epitome of purity--but it is still a con, the base animal instincts can be somewhat tamed but never eradicated.

If I really work hard at conning myself that I am pure, I will swiftly become sanctimonious and believe that my 'purity' entitles me to dictate the behaviour of others, so too much 'purity' is a trap, not something to strive for. 'Purity' can never be measured in terms of human beings being 'pure' or 'impure.'
Purity is a relative concept.
'Pure' clean water is seen as clear and containing nothing else until you put it under a microscope and find that it is a teeming mini-ecosphere. The real pure water is distilled or boiled--to all intents and purposes dead.

The notion of attainable purity belongs with the notion of a perfect world--it aint gonna happen.
The fact that I am impure however and will never be otherwise isn't a rationalisation to give me free reign to indulge in the worst that human beings are capable of. And anyone who looks at the world knows that we capable of some extremely vile deeds and atrocities indeed.

Its really about all power and whether the person practising tantra is seeking some power and control over their own base instincts--ie learning some restraint, or whether they are seeking the magic key to power over others.

Its also indicative of the problems in interpreting old texts--do you read them as rigid, fundamental directives that allow no deviation or as very ordinary human allegories, stories and metaphors that can still have application across the centuries because fundamental human nature does not change while the currently accepted social mores and human behaviour does.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2011 09:54PM by Stoic.

Quote
corboy
(Somber)

It is to greatly to be feared that even the high lamas and tulkus and rinpoches may be at risk of being 'used children'.

So it echoes the culture of normalized child abuse and normalized denial we have discovered to exist in the Catholic methods of priest formation and in too many cases, deformation.

I have no doubt that some of the lamas have unresolved childhood trauma in their past. The lamas I've met or received "empowerments" from, as well as the two ex-monks I've met, did not have normal emotional expression. Most were very cold, and none had normal reactions to simple, casual conversation. It was clear they were hiding their feelings, withholding simple personal information, always on their guard for no reason. This had become a way of life for them.

An all-male environment, especially one that routinely brutalizes little boys, would not be an environment in which one would feel "safe" expressing one's emotions. One would have to repress any distress, sadness, or grief one felt. No nurturing or healthy modeling of emotional expression would take place around one. Add to that the struggle to make influential contacts as the boys grow up, attempting to improve their lot in any way they can, the jockeying for power that takes place between older monks and lamas, the boys learn that the way to survive is to attach oneself to power, to manipulate people to get what they want, stuffing their feelings all the while. All of that compounds the original trauma of the chronic sexual violence they suffered as little boys. It is immensely dehumanizing. No wonder the lamas I've seen have all been cold fish! I think in the cases of the stereotypical smiling lamas, the smile is very superficial. Displease the lama in any way (if a female dharma student refuses sex, for example), and anger, rage even, rears its ugly head.

Tashi Tsering, in his autobiography, "The Struggle for Modern Tibet", did not grow up in a monastery, but nonetheless, he ended up having to sexually service an influential government official in exchange for the right to get an education. In the theocracy of old Tibet, the government officials were required to be celibate monks. According to Tsering, many were not particularly inclined toward religion, but in order to get a government job, robes and celibacy were required. So boys and young men were used as passive sex partners in a masturbation technique peculiar to Tibetan culture.

With this example, we can see that sex in Tibetan theocratic culture was a type of currency that boys and young adult men could use in order to make influential contacts and gain mentors who could help them improve their station in life. Even more so in the monasteries, where most boys and young monks were merely servants of the elite monks and lamas, and were desperate to improve their own circumstances. Anyone fortunate enough to manage to transfer to a government office as a low-level assistant would still have to hide their trauma, being prone to emotional outbursts due to Post-Traumatic Stress. PTSD has a strong destabilizing effect on the nervous system, causing chronic anxiety or exaggerated response to any fear or unease. Such cases have to go through life always pretending, always on their guard, unable to relax and be genuine and spontaneous. As adults, they are handicapped emotionally and intellectually, as the effect of severe childhood trauma is to stunt intellectual growth. Such individuals will never make it to lama status. Most give back their robes in their 20's and try to make a life for themselves at menial jobs in secular life.

Lamas raised in a sexualized monastic environment, on the other hand, may not have been treated as severely as children (the predatory monks tend to choose the shy, sensitive boys as their victims, it has been reported), and tulkus especially would have received such deferential treatment all their lives that narcissism would be the tendency. Narcissistic leaders whose monastic upbringing lead to their desensitization to others' pain and suffering are a recipe for disaster when unleashed on a naive Western Buddhist community.

Knowing that the New Jonang tradition, one that I was in, teaches tantric sex, and since I have read the Kalacakra Tantra I learned that they use children in Tibet, I wrote to this man who wrote this back. (First, I want to say that outside of the Kalacakra that I have read I have no proof that New Jonang is doing this, but I have my concerns, and the the letter he wrote is very good. Perry Bulwer has a web site on Child Abuse in Religions.)

"I took a quick look at the Jonang Foundation website. According to that, the school "... is being built adjacent to a Jonang Monastery and will serve as a boarding school for up to 300 students." So, it is not inside the monastery, but obviously still closely connected to it.

From my perspective, the first sign of abuse I noticed was that these schools are intended to indoctrinate children, especially Tibetan nomad children. That sounds similar to the residential schools used in Canada, the U.S. and Australia to indoctrinate the indigenous populations. All kinds of horrific abuses occurred in those boarding schools.

As for sexual abuse, even if they did not teach sexual tantras, religious boarding schools can be very dangerous places for children. My news archive blog has many articles regarding abuse in Christian boarding schools such as the residential schools I mentioned, or other types of homes for orphans, troubled youth, etc. Much abuse also occurs in Islamic boarding schools, and although I don't have many articles in my archive on this, I know that much physical, sexual and psychological abuse occurred in the past in Hare Krishna boarding schools. And just this morning someone posted a comment to an article in the archive on abuse in Buddhist monasteries. Here's the link to the article and see the comment for the link to another article:

http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/2010/12/sri-lankan-children-forced-to-become.html

So, like you, I am concerned for the children that will be housed in those indoctrination centers, but I don't know what can be done about it other than what you are already doing. Keeping an eye on the situation and warning others about it is good. Beyond that I'm really not sure as the Chinese government does not have a good record of listening to the concern's of outsiders.

I don't mean to be pessimistic, just realistic. At some point you may become aware of specific instances of abuse, which you might then bring to the attention of authorities as well as other child advocates (for example, the author of the article that is linked to in the comment I received this morning might be a good ally on this issue). That is awfully frustrating, though, having to wait until there is evidence of child abuse before before being able to stop it.

If you've read my very last entry on Religion and Child Abuse News, you will know that I am no longer updating it with new articles, though I will be keeping it open as a research resource. I will add some new items, like a link to your blog which I will add to the links list after I'm finished writing this.

Thanks for contacting me,


Perry Bulwer

Canada
Humanist, Free-Thinker, Atheist, Agnostic, Skeptic, Secularist, Experiential Cult Expert, Lawyer, Human Rights Advocate http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/ "

Recently some corroborating statements in the media regarding child abuse in Tibetan Monasteries have come out. In the film, "My Reincarnation", about Namkhai Norbu and his son, Yeshi, Yeshi tells us that the reason his father declined to send him to a monastery for his education was that his father was beaten regularly, even as a privileged tulku, and he didn't want his son to endure a life of abuse.

In the film, "Tulku", by Gesar Mukpo (Chogyam Trunpa's son), a Dutch Tulku who was raised in India and Bhutan reports that the monasteries are "cesspools" of hate, jealousy, violence and child abuse. Privately, he told a mutual friend that he was terrified every night that he would be hauled away by an older monk to be raped. His mother removed him from the monastery after about two years. This resulted in the Tibetan/Bhutanese father divorcing the mother, but at least the child was saved.

Another Western tulku reports that when he was in a Gelug monastery, rape of the boy novices was routine. He wrote a letter to the office of the Dalai Lama about it, and received a letter back telling him to mind his own business because this was an internal Tibetan matter. (So much for compassion!) IMO that Westerner threw away an opportunity to report the abuse to the police and the newspapers. This is, after all, exactly what the Dalai Lama advocates: to report abuse to the newspapers, and "if necessary, to the police".

Those poor boys have no one to advocate for them, except Western monks who witness the abuse. I can only hope that some of the Western monks or tulkus will see fit to take a more activist role in this scenario. Groups of boy novices in Sri Lanka and Taiwan have taken their molesters to court, but the Tibetan children appear to be more isolated, possibly in part due to lack of English skills. Someone needs to reach out to those boys.

[www.downthecrookedpath-meditation-gurus.blogspot.com] For commentary from Sri Lanka.

[www.facebook.com]

This is a game changer. Finding it requires a little perseverence. It is on Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche's personal Facebook page. You have to scroll down through 2 lots of Older Posts to get to it. The sound is out of sync and the picture quality is terrible. The content is dynamite. For the first time ever a senior Tibetan tulku publicly acknowledges monastic sexual abuse and even an attempt on his life by an older monk. Kalu has now disrobed and has a big following among young people. His predecessor, the late Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche, was a venerated meditation master who set up centres across the globe. I am investigating reactions from the Kagyu hierachy -- I suspect they are very worried.

Thank you for finding and posting this (I'm still searching for it among the Kalu posts). When did he disrobe? A Kalu Rinpoche incarnation was in my town a couple of months ago. This may have been close-minded of me, but I decided in the end not to attend. The center that the former Kalu founded tends to be full of the adoring types who regard verbal abuse of students as legitimate "teachings"--not my type of scene, especially in view of the founder's infamy.

It's good that people are finally starting to speak about the unspeakable, but more is needed. This needs to be reported to the police, but even Western tulkus disenchanted with the system decline to take that step. I've contacted human rights/children's rights organizations in India to inquire about this, and have received no response.