Reincarnated Lama goes off the rails

Osel Hita Torres, aka Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, now a film student, says he was forced to live a lie

FIRST POSTED JUNE 1, 2009

The Spanish boy handpicked by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of a spiritual leader has renounced his monastic life and spoken out against the monks who worshipped him.

Osel Hita Torres was a 14-month-old toddler when the Dalai Lama recognised him as the reincarnation of a recently deceased spiritual teacher, Lama Yeshe, in 1986. The "peaceful, meditative" baby - as his biography on the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 teaching centres around the world, describes him - was chosen over nine other candidates and "enthroned". Renamed Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, the boy guru was taken away from his family in Granada and installed in a monastery in southern India. Growing up, he was only allowed to socialise with other reincarnated souls - although for a brief period he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's cabin.

He was only allowed to socialise with other reincarnated souls - and Richard Gere

Now 24, Torres - who is one of only a handful of Westerners to be recognised as a Tibetan Buddhist tulku, or reincarnation - has rebelled against his spiritual upbringing. While still revered by the Buddhist community, Torres now lives in Madrid where he studies film.

A Jimi Hendrix fan who sports long hair and wears baggy trousers, Torres performed at last year’s Burning Man Festival, the annual avant-garde art event held in the Nevada desert.

Torres said his childhood was "like living a lie", in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," he said.

His monastic upbringing meant an adolescence deprived of television, football and girls, he said. His first disco at 18 was a shock, he said. "I

was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"

Movies were also forbidden, bar one film - The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped boy lama who has magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.

FIRST POSTED JUNE 1, 2009

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I am currently in Spain and have read the original report in "El Mundo". Some English language extracts on the Web (such as the article directly above) either imply or claim that Mr Torres "has completely renounced his former association with the Foundation..", but that is not the impression I got from the "El Mundo" original. Mr Torres seems to have promised to his lama (Zopa) to one day return to the Buddhist fold. I am not certain on this point because my Spanish is not good, but since I have a keen interest in this subject I hope a complete English translation will be made available, or at least that people with more insight will comment here. We need more news like this. Westerners, disillusioned with "their own" religious institutions, often turn to Buddhism, thinking that it is purer and that its institutions are not corrupt. But Tibetan Buddhism has its own skeletons in the closet, past and present, and ironically, quite similar to the monstrosities committed by the Christian church(es). The main reason most Westerners have no clue is because the mainstream media deliberately hush up anti-Dalai news. But search beyond the Dalai Lama--Richard Gere glitz and you are likely to very soon discover absolutely appalling facts about Tibetan Buddhism. I do not wish to mention anything specifically, but it is enough to pay attention to little details and they will soon take you to the larger picture...

Posted by m m at 7:27pm on June 2, 2009

These highly selective excerpts of the original article distort the facts. See what Osel himself has had to say since this came out: http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/osel/ Thank you.

Posted by Ronald Johnson at 4:25pm on June 4, 2009

I do speak Spanish & would say this was a fair representation of the original in El Mundo... there is a similar bilingual article here http://www.magazinebabylon.com/BabylonMagazine5.pdf As I don't know Osel personally I can't say if these articles are a fair representation or just sensationalist.

Posted by m s at 8:13pm on June 8, 2009