In "Buddhism, the law of silence" (JC Lattès), journalists Élodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos investigated some of the Tibetan Buddhist centers that have spread to the West over the past forty years.

They collected "the testimonies of thirty-two abused disciples, targeting thirteen different masters", in several Western countries, leading to the conclusion that there were "serious abuses" in the practice of certain master teachers, or lamas.

For the authors, who also sign an eponymous documentary (broadcast on the Arte platform until November 11), it is not a question of "an isolated sectarian drift", but "well a system which gangrenes the whole of Tibetan Buddhism.

In question, according to them: the wait-and-see attitude of the great figures.

"So far, the Tibetan spiritual authorities have ignored the voice of the victims, repeating over and over again that the subject is not their responsibility. Attempts from within to tackle the problem of sexual assault in the communities have been met with coldness or outright hostility," they write.

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The Dalai Lama's "40 years of silence" are singled out in particular, although he was warned in 1993 of "abusive behavior by masters" on disciples, during a meeting in Dharamsala with European and American masters.

Journalists are also wondering why, in their opinion, the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, French interpreter of the Dalai Lama, known for his books on personal development, has reacted little or not over the past decade.

Asked Wednesday on France Inter radio, Matthieu Ricard, who asked to delete the interviews with him in the documentary, considered it "exaggerated" to affirm that he had said nothing.

It is "healthy, as the documentary does, to denounce (the) deviations", he added.

Acknowledging that he had gained some notoriety from his books, he admitted: "I talked about it, but probably not loudly enough".

More generally, Mr. Ricard stressed that there was a lack of "institutional structure" in Buddhism.

"There are hundreds or even thousands of Buddhist centers in the world. There is no central authority. All these centers are totally independent."

© 2022 AFP