Woman, 30, sues Buddhist monk for sexual battery and trafficking – claiming he raped her in a temple

An Oregon woman has sued an influential Buddhist monk and trusted mentor over a litany of alleged sex crimes, including rape and pressuring her to maintain an unwanted pregnancy.

Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, also known as Choying Rabjam, also allegedly asked her to sit on his lap and “suck his tongue like a lollipop,” following allegations against the Dalai Lama earlier this week.

Rachel Montgomery, now 30, filed a lawsuit in 2011, when she was just 19 years old, accusing him of sexual assault and sex trafficking.

The two met when Montgomery was a teenager studying with him at the Dzogchen Retreat Center in Eugene.

Montgomery alleges that Choga, as he is known, would continually use their student-teacher relationship to make unwanted sexual advances, eventually raping her in a Buddhist temple when she was 21.

She also claims that Choga, now 58, pressured her to get drunk before sexually getting to the point where she was “barely conscious” when he attacked her and ordered her to, just as the Dalai Lama asked a child to to do, to suck his tongue. for ‘tantric empowerment’.

“I feel like Buddhism was weaponized to take advantage of me,” Montgomery said The everyday beast. “I’m not saying it’s going to be armed for everyone. But to me it was weaponized.’

She says that while she was barely conscious, she remembers Choga’s body on top of her and his long hair on her face.

Montgomery claims that Buddhism was an escape from a traumatic childhood and that Choga eventually twisted their teachings to sexually assault her.

“I had pigtails, no fashion sense. I mean I look back and I’m like ‘Wow. I was a baby.’ I didn’t even have a smartphone yet. I was fresh out of the world. I had very little knowledge and know-how in general,” she said.

Montgomery said she had been abusing substances since the age of 13 after her father’s death, while her mother also struggled with drugs and alcohol. She had gotten clean, but was looking for purpose.

Choga, she claims, quickly took an interest in her and even offered her a job nannying for the families living at the retreat, saying they knew each other in a past life.

She had even become an unpaid personal assistant to Choga during the retreat.

Montgomery then claims she was pregnant a month after the night in question and tried to contact Choga, who confirmed their sexual encounter.

Choga convinced [Montgomery] that while the interaction was similar to what the Western world considered ‘sex,’ it was actually a blessed act intended for her spiritual benefit,” the lawsuit alleges.

He tried to convince her that the baby would be a reincarnation of the Buddha and an “enlightened being,” before finally agreeing to pay her for aborting the fetus.

Montgomery’s accusations also reveal a more controlling, obsessive relationship between the two.

Choga supervised [Montgomery’s] daily activities and monitored her lifestyle, making comments that fluctuated dizzyingly between kindness and cruelty,” the lawsuit alleges.

He also ended a budding romance between Montgomery and an unnamed potential male partner, assaulting him in the process to the point of telling him to sign a contract stating that he would leave the US in his own blood.

She eventually wrote to the board of the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation about the attack, but they told her there was nothing they could do because they had no power over Choga and so much time had passed since the incident, the lawsuit alleges.

Montgomery left the community, feeling left out, and instead joined the Peace Corps.

Choga, the Buddhist Center and the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation have yet to comment on the allegations.

Montgomery, who now works for a drug and alcohol-free youth program and lives in Washington state with a man and a cat, wants what she’s been through to be a lesson to others who are “young, curious, semi-naive.” be, as she was.

She pointed out that she assumed everything that had happened to her with Choga was normal within the practice of tantric sex.

“If they googled the community where I was abused, they wouldn’t find anything,” she said. “So it would be very difficult for them to discern what possible harm could befall them.”

“My experience should be accessible to people it would protect,” Montgomery added.

It comes days after the clip of the Tibetan spiritual leader sparked criticism, including from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a US-based organization that supports survivors of spiritual and religious abuse.

The group expressed its horror on Monday after the disturbing footage emerged, showing the young Indian boy kissing the Dalai Lama on the lips as he came forward to pay his respects at a temple charity event.

The disturbing interaction took place during a public gathering in February at the Buddhist Tsuglagkhang Temple in Dharamsala, where the exiled leader lives. He was answering questions from the audience when the boy asked if he could hug him.

The incident has also brought back to the spotlight some of the Dalai Lama’s past controversies.

He has previously faced backlash for comments about the possibility of his successor being a woman, about refugees in Europe, about Pakistan and India, about Donald Trump, and for being paid $1 million to attend an event. live that was organized by a notorious NXIVM sex cult. ‘.