Rotterdam, Netherlands — Four people who say they suffered sexual, physical or psychological abuse at the hands of Tibetan Buddhist teachers have handed to the Dalai Lama 12 victims’ written accounts of mistreatment and appealed to him to tackle the problem.
A group using the hashtag “metooguru” gathered some 1,300 signatures on an online petition calling for the meeting so they could give the spiritual leader their collection of testimonies.
The alleged victims, from the Netherlands and Belgium, met with the Dalai Lama for about 20 minutes at a hotel in Rotterdam on Friday, the first day of his four-day visit to the Netherlands.
They say that he pledged to take action including bringing up the issue at a meeting of Buddhist teachers in November.
The Dalai Lama did not speak to reporters after the meeting.