MARY FINNIGAN AND ROB HOGENDOORN

SEX AND VIOLENCE IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM

This book is the story of how a penniless Tibetan refugee

Sex and
with fierce ambition managed to establish himself in the
West as a renowned Buddhist lama and hoodwink thousands
of people, including show business luminaries, tycoons and
politicians, for more than 30 years.

Violence
Sogyal Lakar left his birthplace in eastern Tibet aged eight
when his family fled the Chinese invasion to seek refuge in
India. Arriving in England in the early 1970s, he brought with
him ideas and attitudes rooted in a culture whose spiritual

Tibetan
sophistication was coupled with feudal social norms.

His transition was spectacularly successful. Sogyal

Rinpoche, as he became known, is a charismatic multi- in
Buddhism
millionaire, credited as the author of a best-selling book.
He starred in a Hollywood movie and his Rigpa Fellowship
attracted followers across the globe. At the peak of his fame
he was the most powerful and best-known Tibetan holy
man after the Dalai Lama.

But as revealed here, it turns out that Sogyal was a charlatan

who was never trained as a lama. He stands accused of finan- The Rise and Fall of Sogyal Rinpoche
cial and sexual misconduct, physical violence and fabricated
credentials. Now seriously ill, he is a fugitive believed to be in

FINNIGAN
Thailand, beyond the reach of police and civil investigations.

This book does not sensationalise the perverse behaviour

that caused profound suffering to scores of devotees. Based
on interviews with victims and eyewitnesses, together with

AND
detailed research and first-hand experience, it echoes the
feminist perspective highlighted by the Me Too and Time’s
HOGENDOORN

Up movements. It is also a story about the culture clash that

occurs when the misogyny of old Tibet is greeted with naïve
acceptance and adulation by spiritual seekers in the West.

US: $19.95
UK: £15.95
EU: €17.95