THE KHYENTSE FOUNDATION’S SHODDY AND UNETHICAL TREATMENT OF A FEMALE SURVIVOR AND DHARMA TRANSLATOR. New information sets a dangerous precedent regarding the unethical, unfair and unprofessional treatment by the Khyentse Foundation of a scholar-translator who is also a survivor and whistleblower of lama misconduct

‘“Anyone who harms a translator is also injuring the teachings in general.” –Vimalamitra.

In July 2020, I wrote about how the Khyentse Foundation (KF) awarded me the Ashoka Grant for a second year running but then soon after, immediately, without checking anything with me verbally or personally, withdrew their award.

The reason for this withdrawal was due to an email that Lynn Hoberg (an administrator of the KF) told me had been sent to them by a European woman, Carina Kramer-Bleicher of the executive board of Benchen Phuntsog Ling in Belgium, falsely and/or misleadingly stating that I did not have permission to translate or publish texts authored by Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche. The email was clearly sent as a retaliation and punishment for my complaining privately to Benchen (and others) in September 2019 about Sangye Nyenpa’s sexual misconduct, harassment and dishonesty in relation to myself (and other women he met at Dharma teachings over many years). Carina never wrote to me beforehand stating this. 

I responded to Lynn Hoberg of KF to protest their unfair and unprofessional decision to withdraw the funding by sending them:

• Several voice and written Wechat messages Sangye Nyenpa sent to me clearly stating he had given me permission and one-to-one  in person transmission of these texts.
• Voice messages from Sangye Nyenpa informing me that he had contacted Lama Rinczen in Poland to tell him (and a Polish student, Tomek) that I had the requisite permission from him.
• Part of a recording I had taken of over ten hours one-to-one meetings with Sangye Nyenpa at Benchen monasteries in Nepal getting the transmission and explanation of the texts, of which there were several monastic witnesses. These recordings were done with his permission.

However, KF completely ignored this evidence and my own testimony, (and Lynn also refused to send me the email or the email address it had come from, even though it was about me). And thus based their decision to withdraw the funding on the basis of one unverified email, alleged to be from a woman managing a Benchen centre in Europe. Moreover, it sets a dangerous precedent in that anyone could write to KF claiming to be someone else and damage their reputation and funding, as KF will not (and do not) verify the authenticity of it. KF did not even check with the author of the texts to get his opinion on it. 

Also, even if the email were from Carina, she does not own the rights to Sangye Nyenpa’s texts at all and neither do Benchen Phuntsog Ling (based in Europe). KF should have also verified the contents of the email with Sangye Nyenpa himself, the author.

New information: Carina Kramer-Bleicher verbally denies having sent KF an email

This was unprofessional and unfair in itself, yet it gets worse, this week a person I know based in Europe told me  they had verbally asked Carina in person if she had written that email to KF, and also why she had not investigated the case lodged against Sangye Nyenpa. She told them that she had not written an email to KF (or could not re-collect doing so) and did not care about any allegations by women as they were doing it to ‘get attention’. Sadly, many women in the Buddha Dharma take this attitude towards their Buddhist sisters.

So, there are two further issues with this new information that need saying, either:

1. Carina is lying that she did not write to KF, or
2. Someone impersonated her in that email.

 Yesterday, I wrote again to Lynn Hoberg at the KF and informed her of this latest information and asked her if KF had ever checked that the email was authentic and had come from Carina or from Benchen.

Lynn’s response was:

“I received an email from the address bpl.management@benchen.org signed by Carina Krämer-Bleicher, Chairperson. I have no reason to believe this was from an imposter.” and

“I feel confident that the person who wrote to me about owning the rights to the work you wished to translate was legitimate. “

There was no apology or offer to check it was authentic. I can understand that people generally don’t think emails are fraudulent or impersonators, however, as my Ashoka Grant was hastily and immediately withdrawn by KF based on this single email alone, it is unprofessional, unfair and negligent that the KF did not even check its veracity and authenticity beforehand, and still refuse to do so considering the alleged author is telling others she did not write it (or cannot recollect doing so). 

Since that time, I have never received any further funding from KF and worse, this ‘Carina/Benchen’ email caused serious damage to my name, reputation and chances of work and funding opportunities with the KF and other KF-supported organisations and individuals. For example, the Director of the Khyentse Vision project, Dolma Gunther (the white Australian sister-in-law of Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche who is not a recognised scholar or translator in the field), whom I have never met or spoken to, despite initially being very enthusiastic about my joining and raving about my website, work and despite my qualifications and prior work on Jamyang Khyentse, subsequently shunned  and blacklisted me from work as a translator on the project,  because when asked for the reason, she responded in an email, ‘You are toxic’. She explained her change of mind was something she had learnt from ‘anonymous’ advisors on the project. Hardly the Buddhist way is it? Nepotism and demonising Dharma translators one has never met or spoken to. Have to laugh or might cry!

On taking legal advice in 2020 on this case, I was told that I could sue Khyentse Foundation and Benchen centres for loss and damages caused by their defamatory, slanderous and misleading actions. With this new information, I could now add to that negligence in terms of checking the source of this Benchen originated email and information.

I have not yet taken that step because it is very costly, time-consuming and no guarantee of a positive outcome. Thus, I think it is in the public interest to expose this case here and to demand proper answers and investigations conducted by objective people in relation to the KF’s actions, and the conduct of Sangye Nyenpa himself and his enablers.

Truth is stranger than fiction. For example, is it a mere coincidence that both SN and Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche are both Bhutanese? Perhaps the haste with which KF made such a harmful decision on one unverified email, without checking anything properly, or listening to my testimony and evidence, says it all. 

Zero response from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and hostile and inappropriate response from his assistant

In addition, I also reached out to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in 2020, and was met with a barrage of hostile verbal accusations and interrogation by Tashi Colman, DJKR’s assistant, who should have just forwarded my message to DJKR without comment. Tashi also totally breached my trust by forwarding my confidential emails about the case to staff in KF without my permission. Eventually he sent my message and a small portion of evidence to DJKR but I received ZERO response, other than Tashi telling me that it had been received. Where is the love, bodhicitta and compassion in that?

Concerns about Khyentse Foundation and academic independence

Although, it is excellent that Dharma translators and scholars are funded and supported, as a result of this case (and others), there is legitimate concern about the ‘takeover’ of the independence of academia and Dharma translation by KF via extensive funding and training programmes. What if the applicant is a survivor of lama misconduct like myself? What if the applicant does not follow (or even like) DJKR? These are also questions that the Dharma community and academia need to be asking themselves. One of the reasons I think I did not get much support from fellow academics on this topic was due to their having funding and support from the KF. Although that is understandable, the issue is this, in order to keep KF funding they may feel they cannot support or be associated with survivors and people like myself, or with anyone who does not support and is critical of DJKR too. That is not a healthy situation for freedom of intellectual research and opinion. Their motto is ‘Buddha’s Wisdom For Everyone’, really? Maybe only if you are not a female survivor and whistleblower on lama misconduct and abuse.

Sangye Nyenpa and Benchen centre enablers

The Sangye Nyenpa case and allegations have never been investigated by Benchen staff,  and SN has never been questioned or brought to account for his actions not just towards me but other women. Worse, I faced a nasty online campaign of bullying, slander, impersonation and intimidation by some of SN’s family members and ‘anonymous’ enablers on Facebook and via email.  The fact, that these same people act as if nothing happened publicly, and he is now giving the Rinchen Terdzo transmission at Rumtek Monastery  is not in accordance with general norms on justice, ethics and accountability in ordinary affairs, never mind that of a Buddhist teacher and Buddhist ethics.  Worse still, several young male Kagyu tulkus are taking that transmission from him with the risk that they may also pick up these sexist and misogynist attitudes from him. More on that in another post!

For now, here is the official (and they say only) letter that a letter signed by Tempa Lama of Benchen Monastery Nepal in response to my private complaint about the conduct of Sangye Nyenpa to his family members and Benchen in late 2019, and my also informing them of the withdrawal of the Ashoka Grant by KF, after Carina of Benchen Europe had (allegedly) written to KF.

In the letter, Tempa Lama falsely claims (without any objective investigation) that the allegations about SN are ‘groundless’ (tell that to all the other women too), and that I am ‘discriminating against Buddhism in general’ (have no idea what that means!), do not ‘deserve any place’ at their centres (I didn’t say I did), and have no right to any resolution or investigation.

Conclusion

To conclude, some may think all this is ‘trivial’ in the big scope of worldly things on this planet, and they would be right. However, anything unethical connected to Buddha Dharma  activities negatively affects infinite sentient beings in samsara. So, although KF do support Dharma translations activities, I hope that the KF now check the veracity of that ‘Carina email’ and issue an immediate apology and compensation if they discover that Carina did not write it. In any case, I hope that my writing and exposure of this, helps to ‘clean it up’ and ensure that others do not get harmed in similar ways.   Dedicated to all the survivors and whistleblowers. May the Earth and Buddha be my witness and may truth, compassion, love and wisdom prevail! 

Music? Keeping the heart, soul and wisdom present with Break My Soul by Beyonce, You Gotta Be by Desree,  I’m Still Standing by Elton John and Shake It Off  by Taylor Swift.

Written by Adele Tomlin, 9th August 2023.

Postscript

Even more fishy double standards, after my complaint about SN in 2019, Benchen monastery Nepal rushed through a publication of a translation of the same text I had been working for several months on with SN, by David Molk. Molk told me in email correspondence about it that he had translated the text in 2011, that Benchen had never responded to him when he sent it to them, and that he had never even met, worked with or got the oral transmission of that text from SN! So Benchen would rather publish something by a man who has no scholarly background in translation, and ZERO connection or transmission of the text with the author, than by someone who does! Anyone smell a rotten, sexist, survivor-punishing fish?