New Kadampa Tradition

Buddhist new religious movement founded in 1991

The defining and governing document for the NKT is called A Moral Discipline Guide—The Internal Rules of the New Kadampa Tradition ~ International Kadampa Buddhist Union.

Three annual Buddhist NKT Festivals are held each year: (1) The Spring Festival – held at Manjushri KMC in UK; (2) The Summer Festival – held at Manjushri KMC in UK; (3) The Fall Festival – held at various locations outside the UK. These are taught by the General Spiritual Director of the New Kadampa Tradition, currently Gen la Kelsang Dekyong, and include teachings and empowerments from the Spiritual Director, reviews and meditations led by senior NKT Teachers, chanted meditations and offering ceremonies, and meditation retreats. They are attended by between 2000 and 6000 people from around the world.

After leaving Tibet in 1959, Kelsang Gyatso taught and engaged in retreat in India for 18 years. asked him to be the resident teacher at Manjushri Institute (now known as Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre) in England. Kelsang Gyatso taught the General Program at Manjushri from 1976 to 1987. In 1987, Kelsang Gyatso entered a 3 year retreat at Tharpaland in Dumfries, Scotland. During his retreat, he wrote five books and established the foundations of the NKT IKBU. After completing his retreat in the spring of 1991, Kelsang Gyatso announced the creation of the NKT IKBU, an event which was celebrated by his students in the NKT IKBU magazine Full Moon as "a wonderful development in the history of the Buddhadharma." In 1992, the NKT IKBU was legally incorporated under English law, which constituted the formal foundation of the NKT IKBU. The many Dharma Centres that were following Kelsang Gyatso's spiritual direction were gathered under the common auspices of the NKT IKBU, with him as their General Spiritual Director (GSD). He remained GSD until August 2009 when he retired and was replaced by his successor, Gen la Kelsang Khyenrab. Each of the individual Centers is legally and financially independent.

For some scholars and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism the NKT is considered to be “anti Dalai Lama” for its involvement in a Tibetan diasporic debate between propitiators of Dorje Shugden, a Geluk protector deity dating to the 15th century, and the Dalai Lama, who banned Shugden practice in all Central Tibetan Administration institutions and monasteries in 1996. Martin Mills states:
Recent disputes within the Gelukpa Order over the status of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden have focused on claims by a breakaway order of the Gelukpa, the British based New Kadampa Tradition, that Shugden is of Buddha status (most Gelukpa commentators place him as a worldly deity). The Dalai Lama has since rescinded the ban. Robert Thurman states the International Shugden Community is a front group of the New Kadampa Tradition, something they deny. The NKT IKBU is one of the largest Buddhist movements in the UK, which describes itself as "a new organization making an ancient tradition accessible to all", by combining Tibetan tradition with western adaptation. Oxford professor Peter Clarke sees a paradox here, and has characterised the NKT IKBU as a "controversial Tibetan Buddhist New Religious Movement," not because of any moral failings but because of the NKT IKBU's separation from contemporary Tibetan Buddhism. Madeleine Bunting writes:

The NKT is a fascinating, entirely new chapter in the history of Eastern spirituality in the West. There are no salacious sex scandals here, nor any suggestion of material corruption – there are no fleets of Bhagwan style Rolls Royces. The spiritual naivety of Westerners has not been exploited for spiritual or material gain, but they have become foot soldiers in a Tibetan feud. In 1998 The BBC produced a documentary: “An Unholy Row” which discusses the NKT and the Dorje Shugden Controversy.

There is a group of former members who speak out against the New Kadampa Tradition and their demonstrations against the Dalai Lama's ban on Dorje Shugden practice.

The New Kadampa Tradition and the Continuity of Tibetan Buddhism in Transition – David N. Kay, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1997; pp. 277–293. Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantation, Development and Adaptation The New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (OBC) – David N. Kay, London and New York, 2005,