Controversy
June Campbell, a former Kagyu nun who is an academic feminist, acted as Kalu Rinpoche's translator for several years. In her book Traveller in Space: Gender, Identity and Tibetan Buddhism she writes that he subjected her to an abusive sexual relationship which he told her was tantric spiritual practice. She raises the same theme in a number of interviews, including one with Tricycle magazine in 1996. Cambell stirred quite a discussion and disbelief among Kalu Rinpoche's followers. She waited a full 18 years before publishing her works in a volume entitled Traveller in Space - a translation of dakini, the rather poetic Tibetan word for a woman used by a lama for sex. It took her so long to get over the trauma of the experience. She spent 11 years without talking about it and then, when she had decided to write about it, another seven years researching. She wanted to weave together her personal experience with a more theoretical understanding of the role of women in Tibetan society to help me make sense of what had happened to her.The imbalance is underscored by the insistence by such guru-lamas that their sexual consorts must remain secret, allowing the lamas to maintain control over the women. Since the book was published she received letters from women all over the world with similar and worse experiences."
Read more about this topic: Kalu Rinpoche
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