“Clarity, transparency and truth are forms of genuine respect and protection.”
On 13th March 2025, Osel Hita, a Spanish-born incarnation of Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Lama Thubten Yeshe (a close friend of recently passed Lama Zopa Rinpoche) issued a statement detailing his maltreatment and “toxic and controlling” culture in the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). The letter was issued the same date US President, Donald Trump withdrew all funding for RFA and VOA media outlets. Although they are not connected in worldly terms, on the karmic “invisible” level, timing is relation to the activities of the Gelugpa lineage is no mere coincidence perhaps.
Hita’s letter was a response to a prior statement from the FPMT issued on March 11 2025, an organisation founded by these named Tibetan Buddhist teachers to propagate Buddhism and retreats among mainly international students. Hita’s letter includes statements such as:
“I have always been someone they needed to manage and control, instead of seeing me as a human being or even an asset for FPMT if you could say that. I must remind the board that i’m not a child anymore, and they are not my parents. This toxic misperception should change.”
“Many accusations have been thrown at me without any investigation, follow up or proof whatsoever. I’ve heard that a few people complained about me. But the board has not done anything to actually fact check, interview other people concerned, ask me any questions in the process or even get any evidence to come to the conclusions they arrived at in a very short period of time.”
“Of course it may appear that there are divisions and rifts but i truly feel it is a very positive process in which finally there can be more transparency and accountability from both sides.”
“I must say that my relationship with the board in general has become a bit toxic since i resigned from being an FPMT board member in 2011. The only peaceful way to protest the disappointment of dynamics i experienced first hand. What i saw and lived at the time i was a board member was quite shocking in general. The structure of power, the manipulations, the lack of transparency, very little accountability, not much culture of appreciation, as well as the lack of ethics and hypocrisy really disturbed me, and i did not feel it was adequate to speak out about this at that time. I also kindly asked to be taken out of the teachers list because i felt there were other teachers in the list that had no ethics and were very unqualified to be on that list. I felt i did not want to represent this kind of culture and it really bothered me to be in that situation. I cannot tolerate or condone this type of behaviour and activity, especially being the living representative of Lama Yeshe today.”
“The board first offered me therapy, as from their understanding i am the problem, not them. They don’t want to take responsibility or any type of accountability for the disastrous childhood i had to live under their supervision. A few board members today were present in the board at that time already and are directly responsible for many decisions made around my destiny in which my mother, father or myself had no jurisdiction whatsoever. Here i have to explain that my education and childhood have been very chaotic and unstructured without any consideration for the innocent child i was. I was forced to tour FPMT centers since the age of 2, separated from my family, traveling with strangers who kept changing until the age of 6”
In terms of Hita’s recognition as Lama Yeshe as a young boy, from his bio here:
“Ösel was born in 1985 in the village of Bubión at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, southeast of Granada, in southern Spain. In 1986, when Ösel was just over one year old, His Holiness the Dalai Lama confirmed Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s observations that the son of Lama Yeshe’s students, María Torres and Francisco Hita, was the unmistaken reincarnation of FPMT’s founder, Lama Yeshe. Ösel was enthroned in March 1987 at Tushita Retreat Center in Dharamsala, India. In 1991, when he was six years old, he began life at Sera Je Monastic University in South India, where he lived and studied until he was 18. Ösel then decided to leave monastic life to explore modern ways of life and thinking.”
I have no personal connection with Osel Hita or Lama Yeshe. However, when I first entered the world of Tibetan Buddhism on my first trip to India (after taking refuge vows for the first time with the first Tibetan Buddhist teacher I met, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa in Dharamsala, India) I remember seeing a couple of videos of Lama Yeshe and found him a fascinating and funny teacher, who seemed very much in touch with the bliss-emptiness Buddha Nature. I never met him in person, although I did attend a couple of FPMT retreats in Kopan Monastery and at other FPMT centres, and briefly met Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Thus it is tragic and heartbreaking to read Osel Hita’s testimony of abuse, misconduct and shoddy treatment at the hands of the FPMT. The whole response from Osel Hita, can be read here.
Dagri Rinpoche case of molestations of women and sacking from FPMT
Previously, in 2020, there was another Gelugpa scandal with the long-time FPMT teacher, Dagri Rinpoche, also a close friend of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Gelugpa recognised, Khandro Kunga Buma, after being accused of years of molesting and sexually harassing nuns and women (and even allegedly a woman on a plane, which led to his arrest in India).
In a video posted on YouTube (which is no longer available), Jakaira Perez Valdivia alleged that Dagri Rinpoche had molested her ten years ago at his residence behind Namgyal Monastery when she visited him seeking advice for her back problem (pain). She stated that it took her a long time to come out in the open to tell about her ordeal because people tried to convince her otherwise, that the Rinpoche did it out of compassion. She further claimed that there are many other women who were also molested by Dagri Rinpoche.
“Many girls and women; laywomen, nuns, Western, Tibetan, Indians have been molested by Dagri Rinpoche,” the Spanish women alleged.
The FPMT administration then admitted after his arrest and her video in 2020 that:
“According to the standard applied by Faith Trust Institute, Dagri Rinpoche committed sexual misconduct, which also qualifies as spiritual abuse given his position as a spiritual teacher. We are sincerely sorry for the suffering experienced by the victims. We have permanently removed Dagri Rinpoche from the list of Tibetan teachers from which FPMT centers can choose to invite to provide Dharma teachings.”
Attempts to get a response from Dagri Rinpoche about the allegations were all met with silence. Since then, I was informed by a monk that he is “back in action” so to speak at one of the big Gelug monasteries in South India. No rest for the wicked as they say?! Seriously though, let us all hope the “sacking” has led to a change in attitude and conduct on his part though.
In any case, this latest story with Osel Hita, suggests all is not well at FPMT or with Tibetan Buddhist culture, not Dharma.
Dagri Rinpoche’s friends and teachers enablers, or did not know?
The FPMT were also accused of enabling and covering up Dagri Rinpoche’s misconduct to some extent. Also, athough I could not find a public photos of them all together, I remember (shortly before the misconduct case became public) seeing Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khandro Kunga and Dagri Rinpoche in an Italian-Tibetan restaurant in Mcleod Ganj sitting and laughing with each other.
Did the friends and supporters of Dagri Rinpoche know what he was doing to women and nuns? Surely, if they are highly realised practitioners, they would know with their power of mental insight and wisdom, right? If they did not know, then are they as realised with siddhis as people think, or did they know and enable it? Just asking questions in the spirit of the Nalanda tradition, which the Gelugpas in particular say they emulate and aspire to!
Lack of genuine renunciation of young tulkus and monastics and quantity over quality: root of the problem?
The centuries old culture of putting young boys (and girls) in monasteries, never mind recognising them as incarnate lamas, seems to be leading to questionable and unethical conduct from these ‘motherless’ ‘boys’ who are now adult men towards women (and children, see the Gelugpa Dob-Dob culture prevalent in Tibet pre-1959) .
In fact, some survivors and writers have rightly raised the “alarm bells” over the abuse of such children in celibate all-male institutions and the lack of adequate safeguards and child protection in such institutions. The 2nd Kalu Rinpoche publicly exposed his own rape and abuse at the hands of elder monks while he was a young monk, which is no doubt the “tip of the iceberg”.
Perhaps now is the time more than ever to focus on quality, not quantity? After all, Shakyamuni Buddha never intended Buddhist monasteries to be full of children and teenagers without genuine renunciation and wish to emerge from samsara, did he?
In any case, I am just reporting this new testimony. Don’t shoot the messenger, you might miss the message! To end with some Buddhist wisdom and love, I leave you all with this lovely video clip of teaching in 1980 by Lama Yeshe from his Introduction to Tantra, in which he talks about the meaning of one of the fundamentals of any Buddhist path, genuine ‘renunciation’! So, although I sympathise with Hita and his courage in speaking out, how interesting it is that Hita himself, as Lama Yeshe’s declared incarnation, seems to be doing the exact opposite of Lama Yeshe’s advice? Ha ha ha. Nonetheless, on the relative level at least, clarity, transparency and truth are signs of genuine respect and protection from harm, confusion and deception that arises from a lack of clarity, and for that we can be grateful to Osel Hita for trying to give us that.
Music? Hypocrisy by Millie Jackson, and Losing My Religion by REM.
Written on Dakini Day, by Adele Tomlin, 24th March 2025.
As always, you hit right in the center Adele! Great writing, time is long past to change these things!
Thank you!
Honestly, Gelug has been a problem since its founding. They are purely political organization, this is a fact. And now that their purpose no longer exists, they don’t know what to do with themselves other than make money.
You’ve always got your finger on the pulse, you’re amazing. You opened my eyes about online empowerments in one of your articles. Needless to say I ONLY regard empowerments that I’ve received in person as valid. The clash we’re seeing here with Lama Osel and the FPMT is a clash of cultures. Old feudal Tibet is still peeping through. If Himalayan Buddhism is to survive, this clinging to outdated cultural practices, like the Tulku system, needs to be abandoned.
Thanks! Even those in person empowerments are not received by everyone. It depends on one’s understanding and level of focus, ability to visualise and devotion to the guru.