(TibetanReview.net, May11’26) – By unofficial results, Geshe Lharampa Atuk Tseten has won re-election to the 18th Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE) as one of two persons to represent the Gelug Tibetan Buddhists in it, but he is now removed from his monastery in a disciplinary action. At its meeting on May 10 evening, the governing body of the Drepung Gomang Buddhist Monastic College in the Tibetan Settlement in Mundgod, Karnataka state of India, took a unanimous decision to expel him from its community. The governing body also took a decision to bar its members from standing for elections for the TPiE and the Sikyong without giving up their membership of the monastery first.
The decision followed the governing body’s finding that Geshe Lharampa Atuk Tseten had violated the solemn, oath-bound pledge he took on Jan 20 not to repeat his past infractions while offering a solemn atonement for the same.
The decision, approved by the entire leadership of the monastic college, said Geshe Lharampa Atuk Tseten had deliberately violated the solemn pledge he took before the three Three Jewels of Buddhism in ostensible compliance with a directive issued by the governing body of the monastic university (The Drepung Lachi) on Jan 9, 2026.
The Drepung Lachi had issued that directive following a Dec 27, 2025 rebuke of the two Gelug representatives to the TPiE by the Nechung Choegyal Chenpo, the principal state oracle of Tibet, for serious vocal misconduct which allegedly included insulting His Holiness the Dalai Lama and engaging in religious and provincial bigotry, abandoning the general interest of the Sowland of Tibet.
The Drepung Lachi directive had asked the duo to admit their faults as faults, express sincere regret for their past conduct, and vow to not repeat such infraction in future.
During the atonement event, the duo pointedly denied having ever defamed His Holiness the Dalai Lama, adding they would also never do so in future even at the cost of their lives, calling him our “precious root guru” while otherwise offering their solemn pledges of rectitude in their future conduct, as asked.
The Drepung Gomang resolution of May 10 now says Geshe Lharampa Atuk Tseten was in a deliberate violation of that solemn pledge and commitment. It said that during the last session of the 17th TPiE in Mar 2026, he sought to revive the issue and questioned the authenticity of the Nechung’s pronouncements, calling them fake and absolutely unacceptable, while hurtling entirely baseless allegations against senior staff of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the state oracle’s medium.
The resolution said his actions threatened to bring disrepute to the monastic community in the eyes of the lay Tibetan public and to undermine the faith itself. “Therefore, in line with the Buddhist edicts and the monastic discipline, the monastery has decided to expel him from its community through a unanimous resolution.”
The other Gelug member of the 17th TPiE, Gowo Lobsang Phende, belongs to Drepung Loseling College, and there are no reports of any development concerning his case there so far.
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The governing body has also adopted two other resolutions, one of which barred members of the college from running for election to the TPiE or Sikyong. If any member of the college runs for any of these elections for any reason, they first need to permanently give up their membership of the monastery. And anyone who fails to comply with this rule should consider himself automatically expelled by his own conduct, the resolution said.
The monastery was stated to have previously made it clear that while its members were free to vote as they liked, it was unacceptable, and entirely unbecoming, if any of them involved themselves in the thick of unseemly acts of factional politics.
Recalling the immense, unparalleled debts of gratitude the Gomang monastic college owes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his office, the Gaden Phodrang, the third resolution made it clear that any member who makes unfounded accusations and defamatory remarks against His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Gaden Phodrang, if proved by direct evidence, will face expulsion.