A few months back, I had been reliably informed by someone close to the case, and an administrator of a US Dharma centre, that the main administrator of the Kagyu Monlam, a monk Lama Chodrag had encouraged and engaged in sexual relations with the daughter of a family (while she was a minor, 15-16 years old) when he was staying in the USA in the home of the family. For those who are not aware, and have never been to the Kagyu Monlam, Lama Chodrag has been the main organiser for several years now and dresses and acts like a monk.
Although I do not know Lama Chodrag personally, this information was rather shocking to me, but as the source was a very reliable and trustworthy one, I investigated a little myself and discovered that he had indeed been banned from ever attending the Dharma centre again associated with that family, and any Kagyu Monlam there. In fact, he had not returned to the USA for several years afterwards due to a fear of litigation by the family for sex with a minor (which is illegal in the US, and many other countries, regardless of “consent”, because a minor is deemed not mature enough to make and informed decision). The sexual relations were not karmamudra and the teacher nor consort were qualified, so what was that all about?
If this is true, which all the reliable sources say it is, then the question has to be, are the 17th Karmapa and the Karma Kagyu organisers unaware of this serious issue? If not, why not? If yes, why has he been allowed to continue travelling around the world with the Kagyu Monlam team?
Kagyu Monlam India and Taiwan 2025: No aspiration/monlam books available and unwilling to speak
Last time I attended the Kagyu Monlam in 2025 (last year) I was surprised that there were ZERO books for sale by the 17th Karmapa in the stalls, and also NO hard copy monlam prayer books, and people were being told to read the extensive prayers from their smartphones. Not only is this not easy to do on a small screen, but for those with bad eyesight even more difficult! There was also no projection of the prayers onto a big screen either.
This seemed extraordinarily bad organisation and allocation of funds, as the main point of the meeting was to recite the aspirations and so on, not some social gathering for monks and nuns and laypeople. I went to see Lama Chodrag about the issue and he seemed rather uunconcerned about it. No spare books were made available after that either, and so I decided not to attend the Monlam and practised under the Bodhi tree instead.
Later, at the Taiwan Kagyu Monlam, Lama Chodrag was there and I had been informed by that time of the US case and the under-age sex. When I saw Lama Chodrag, I approached him privately when no-one else was around and asked him about the case. Instead of calmly responding “it is not true”, or explaining the situation, he rather aggressively told me to “mind my own business”. Hardly the words and actions of a loving, kind, compassionate lama is it?
In any case, this silence around such incidents, and endemic and widespread corruption at high levels of the Karma Kagyu (and no doubt other lineages) seems to be at the root of their woes and challenges with the 17th Karmapa and in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism in general. Under-age sex with a monk who has some administrative power, has nothing to do with awakening or karmamudra.
Women and minors are not the problem, corrupt monks/teachers are
Some people have complained to me that exposing these issues leads to a disruption of peace and harmony. I would say the opposite, it is the ongoing enabling of lies, hypocrisy, misogyny, misuse of Tantric rituals to “rape”, humiliate and degrade and “enslave” women (a root downfall in Vajrayana) by sexually repressed ordinary “monks” is no real peace or harmony. As it is based on abuse, loathing of women, sadism, and patriarchal norms.
The fact that such men are continually rewarded by the system, and enabled to continue, whereas devout Buddhist women and girls who had the karmic misfortune to meet such men and expose it, are then deemed the problem and excluded, demonised and shunned by these men and their enabling friends (“flying monkeys”) is why the problems facing Tibetan Buddhist teachers and their communities are not going away. No matter how many women they silence with bullying, intimidation, defamation, impersonation the problem remains like a dirty mess under a carpet that people keep brushing more dirt under it hoping it will go away, instead the dirt gets worse, until the smell of it is so bad that one has to lift the cover and clean it up properly.
As Tilopa famously declared, “Dakini is Truth!” and in that spirit of exposing misconduct towards women in vajrayana by influential Tibetan Buddhist monks, I dedicate this telling truth to power to ensuring that women and minors are protected from harm and be free of such corrupt “religious patriarchal” influences. After all, these females are not led to full liberation from samsara by the worldly actions of these men, and many who came into Buddha Dharma with a sincere wish for liberation from the suffering of samsara, are even being put off the Buddha Dharma altogether!
Music? Yeshe Tsogyel’s “Longing for Meaning” sang and translated by Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs.
Who is his boss? Has anyone informed the Kagyu Monlam committee? Who’s is his root guru and has anyone reported this to them? Is he an ordained monk and is there a disciplinary board for monks where he is located like there is here in Thailand? Every year there seems to be more and more sex scandals within the Tibetan Buddhist teacher community? Where is the ethic enforcers in the Vajrayana community?
Seems like they have not been informed, or they know and were informed but chose to ignore it. Yet women and females who have endured this treatment, like myself, are shunned, isolated, ignored, demonised and defamed for even daring to tell others about it. Where are the ethics enforcers in the Vajrayana community? Dakinis and Dharma Protectors are, and the humans they use to channel their activity. I try my best, and I have taken the consequences for doing so. We need to be the light we want to see in the world. Turning a blind eye to it all makes everyone blind eventually….time to wake up and grow, change and improve! Love and peace have to be authentic and not based on outer appearances, performance and excluding and rejecting survivors and denigrating and harming women and children in the name of Buddha Dharma.
This is a comment meant for you alone, Ms. Tomlin. What you don’t know, besides the parties in question, is that Venerable Lama Choedrak made 100 miniature stupas as penance for that transgression; that he donated those stupas to Dharma Centers all over the USA; that the young girl and the Lama were in love with each other. As a now-grown and married woman, she bears the Lama no malice. You also don’t seem to realize that your projected outrage is not justified or excusable in any genuine Buddhist practitioner. Stale gossip and very few facts do not become a woman of your admirable talents . In this particular case, yours is the eye that is blind.
“The young girl and the lama were in love with each other?” You mean the child and the monk? Your response says it all….if they were in love and she had the ability to give full consent to an adult monk, then how come the woman never wants to meet him again, and the family got him banned from the centre and wanted him prosecuted? Hardly Romeo and Juliet is it? An elder monk in a position of unfluence grooming and having sexual relations with a girl while staying in the family’s home? What you call “stale gossip” is factual reality, and clearly shows that not only are you turning a blind eye to clearly corrupt monastic conduct towards a layperson female minor, but worse than that actually insulting myself and others for speaking truthfully about it. I have no idea who you are either, so there is no way of knowing if what you say is correct or not. Please provide clear evidence to support what you say. Do not bother responding on here, it will not be published.
As for women of “admirable talents” (which you say about me), we get ignored, shunned, undermined, isolated and denigrated by such lamas….I guess adult, intelligent, talented, independent thinking women don’t get any access/privilege “time of day” with such lamas. I call that dharma protector and dakini protection though, not blindness. Blind leading the blind will make everyone blind.
‘Brocade Buddhism’ at its worst?