Healing Our Sanghas

Over a year has passed since news emerged of multiple allegations of sexual abuse against the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. One woman has come forward to say the Karmapa fathered her child and that the sexual contact was not consensual. Legal proceedings were filed against the Karmapa for child support in Canada and against Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (the Karmapa’s North American headquarters) in New York based on allegations of rape. The Karmapa has not publicly denied or responded to any of the allegations. Buddhist leaders have yet to offer the guidance that our communities need.

This news has had far-reaching and sometimes traumatic effects on our Dharma communities and on our practice. The cloak of silence that has fallen has left most of us to process in private. But the effects of the allegations are not merely private and individual. They are also collective. We believe that the very possibility of creating healthy Dharma communities depends on our finding our voice and speaking into the silence.

We created this site as an opportunity to speak and be heard on a global map. We aspire to offer it as a safe space where we can come together, help one another begin to heal our own pain and our fragmented communities, and respond wisely and compassionately. This site offers an interactive map, an anonymous tool to share your experiences, and a timeline. With these tools, anyone can express—anonymously—their experiences in the wake of the allegations and the silence surrounding them.

The allegations have had ripple effects across the globe. Here we can find our own voices, bear witness to others' voices and face this trauma together. When reading others’ testimonies, we invite you to bear witness to their experiences with empathy and respect.

Click on the dots to view others' voices. (You can add your own in the “Add Your Voice” section below.) Locations are likely to have more than one testimony. For locations with more than one testimony, please use the arrows at the top of the testimony to move between stories.

A BLUE BORDER + YELLOW CIRCLE will appear when a contribution has been reviewed and published to the map.

Please note: Contributions that include rebuttals, harsh speech, or criticism of others’ testimonies will not be published. Nor will we publish text that attacks survivors or support in any way the well-known technique of intimidating and silencing those who have been harmed by Buddhist teachers. Since Healing Our Sanghas is not collecting any contact information, we will not be able to reach out to you to ask you to make changes.  Instead, text that violates this will not be shared on the map. We regret that we are also unable to post responses that address allegations of abuse by other named teachers. We realize there is a real need for a place for survivors to report abuse, but for legal reasons we cannot offer that service here.

Here is where you can add your voice to the map or just answer some yes-or-no questions. If you have been affected in any way by the allegations against the Karmapa, you are welcome to participate. You do not need to be a practitioner in his lineage. 

We want you to feel safe and free to share your experiences and aspirations. All contributions are completely anonymous. We do not collect email addresses, IP addresses, or any other data. You do need to choose a place on the map, but you can locate yourself by city, state or province, or even just a country or continent. To further protect your identity, you can pick where you are now, where you are from, or any place you have been at any point since you were first impacted by the allegations. No one will be able to comment on what you write on this site.  We do not censor or edit contributions.

For technical issues, email  admin@healingoursanghas.org . Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide information or respond to individual comments.

The timeline contains allegations of abuse and harm, including images of the Karmapa. Contents may be triggering; prioritize your health and take care of your heart.

We are a group of practitioners from diverse Karma Kagyu centers and communities, in association with Buddhist studies scholars.

The group of practitioners who initiated this project includes people who have completed the traditional three-year, three-month retreat, and consists of both lay and monastic practitioners. We come from different Karma Kagyu centers and communities, and are all connected to various Karma Kagyu teachers. This project is also associated with Ann Gleig (University of Central Florida) and Amy Langenberg (Eckerd College), scholars who cover Buddhist communities as part of the  Religion and Sexual Abuse Project .

The practitioners in our group have decided to remain anonymous. This site and the map are aimed at offering conditions where everyone can be comfortable speaking without fear of reprisals. Some of us have already experienced adverse consequences as a result of raising the topic of the allegations in much smaller arenas. At this point, we want to conserve our emotional energy for our own processing of this situation, which is ongoing, and for conversations where we can make positive contributions rather than simply defend ourselves. For the record, none of us have any ties whatsoever to the Chinese government.

We were motivated to create this site because we all care deeply about how the Dharma is transmitted and about its prospects for the future, and out of concern for the suffering that we observe as a result of the allegations and the silence.

For more information, return to the  www.healingoursanghas.org  home page.

 _{Healing Our Sanghas is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of fact. The views expressed on the site by individuals engaging on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of Healing our Sanghas or its affiliates. We have no position on the truth or falsity of allegations, as they are not proven facts.}