The New Kadampa Tradition

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In 1996, journalist Madeleine Bunting wrote for The Guardian UK: “Most of the 130,000 Buddhists in this country are in the caring professions, or are academics, or are part of an ex-hippy culture; they are trusting, idealistic and naive. They thought Buddhism was immune to the fanaticism and hypocrisy which riddles all religions. The controversy surrounding the [New Kadampa Tradition] is shattering illusions that Buddhism was the one fail-safe religion.”

Twenty years later, clinical psychologist Dr Michelle Haslam joined the NKT under that very same illusion – one that she now feels obliged to help truly shatter herself.

EPISODE LINKS

• Geshe Kelsang Gyatso — biography by Tenzin Peljor and Carol McQuire, Tibetan Buddhism in the West blog, 2015

• Interviews in Cambridge, Meeting Children in London — His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, 19 September 2015

• To the Tibetan Buddhists around the world and fellow Tibetan compatriots

• within and outside Tibet — undated open letter with 15 Tibetan official signatories

• Separate document regarding Geshe Kelsang's personal situation — Kelsang Gyatso statement on NKT letterhead, June 2008

• Recovery from The New Kadampa Tradition – A Resource Centre — website by Dr Michelle Haslam and former NKT members

• Potential harm to mental and physical health through exposure to The New Kadampa Tradition (NKT-IKBU), Version 4 — by Dr Michelle Haslam, 17 January 2020

• Dr Michelle Haslam: Plagiarization & Misrepresentation of Research — website attributed to “Dr Robert Harrison”, archived as at 23 January 2020

• An Unholy Row — BBC documentary, 1998

• Tibetan Buddhism — BBC profile of the religion, last updated 14 January 2014 at the time of access (January 2020)

• Understanding the Mind — by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Tharpa Publications, 2002

• settings

• Silencing and Oblivion of Psychological Trauma, Its Unconscious Aspects, and Their Impact on the Inflation of Vajrayāna. An Analysis of Cross-Group Dynamics and Recent Developments in Buddhist Groups Based on Qualitative Data — by Anne Iris Miriam Anders, Religions Journal, 10 November 2019

• Modern Kadampa Buddhism — New Kadampa Tradition official website, accessed January 2020

• The New Kadampa Tradition and the Continuity of Tibetan Buddhism in Transition — by David N. Kay, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1997

• Tibetan Buddhism in the West: Problems of Adoption & Cross-Cultural Confusion — website with various resources collated by Tenzin Pelijor

• The Monk Who Had No Confidence: ‘Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche’ — by Carol McQuire, New Kadampa Survivors, 31 October 2014

• It Slowly Dawned On Me That I Had Actually Been Sucked Into A Cult – A New Kadampa Survivor Testimony — by Linda Ciardiello, Medium, 5 December 2017

• Declaration of Expulsion of Kelsang Gyatso from Sera Je Monastery — statement translated by Sera Je Geshe Gendun Gyatso and David Patt, 23 August 1996

• Joyful Path of Good Fortune: The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment — by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Motilal Banarsidass Publications, 1990

• Special Report: Shadow boxing on the path to Nirvana — by Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 6 July 1996

• The Open Society and Its Enemies: New One-Volume Edition — by Karl R. Popper, Princeton University Press, 2013

• Declaration concerning the demonstrations against His Holiness the Dalai Lama — open letter signed by 24 ex-NKT members and 7 supporters, 19 August 2014

• Sect disrobes British monk — by Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 15 August 1996

• Kadampa Primary School Derbyshire — Ofsted Report, October 2016

• The Followers of a Wrathful Buddhist Spirit Versus the Dalai Lama — by Mark Hay, Vice, 16 March 2015

• Battle of the Buddhists — by Andrew Brown, The Independent, 15 July 1996

• Open Letter to some Followers of the New Kadampa Tradition — by Gavin Kilty, 26 February 2015

• The One Pure Dharma — by Judith Hertog, Tricycle, Winter 2018

• 1015054 - NEW KADAMPA TRADITION - INTERNATIONAL KADAMPA BUDDHIST UNION — UK Charity Commission listing of accounts to 31 December 2018

• New Kadampa Tradition 2018 Annual Report — Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2018

• Special Report: China co-opts Buddhist sect in drive to discredit Dalai Lama — by David Lague, Paul Mooney and Benjamin Kang Lim, 22 December 2015

• Inform Annual Reports — reports viewed in January 2020: 2013/14 to 2017/18

• Extremism on University Campuses 2018 — flyer by Inform

• Death threats to Dalai Lama blamed on rival Bhuddist sect — The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 November 2002

• Relentless: The Dalai Lama's Heart of Steel — by Peter Popham, Newsweek, 29 January 2015

• Meet the Buddhists Who Hate the Dalai Lama More Than the Chinese Do — by Isaac Stone Fish, Foreign Policy, 13 March 2015

• New Kadampa Survivor Testimonies — Facebook page where ex-NKT members share their stories

• We Need to Talk About Shugden Facebook group moderated by ex-NKT members, with a list of further resources

• When it is More than Abuse — by Peter Graham Dryburgh, New Kadampa Survivor Testimonies Facebook page, 11 January 2016

• A Tibetan Translator's Testimony — by Tenzing Wangdak, New Kadampa Survivor Testimonies Facebook page, 21 January 2015

• Group that hounded Dalai Lama disbands after Reuters exposes Chinese backing — by David Lague and Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters, 12 March 2016

• What is DARVO? — by Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, Visiting Scholar at Stanford Medical School, 2018

• ‘Extremist’ sect threatens protests against Dalai Lama during UK visit — by Jamie Doward, The Observer, 13 June 2015

• The readers’ editor on... Buddhism and organised lobbying — by Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, 5 July 2015

• A Buddhist Perspective on Buddhist Trolling — by Geoffrey Bonn, Medium, 22 August 2019

• Australian Sangha Association — ASA website with various statements, accessed January 2020

• ASA New Kadampa Tradition Statement — includes 2008 statement and 2015 statement