Previously known as Palden Dorje (his Vajrayana Buddhist monastic name), he is a controversial wandering ascetic (shramana) from Ratanapuri, Bara District, Nepal.
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| Who is that dusty, napping boy? |
(This of course is nonsense, but in the popular imagination, it was the only explanation for Bomjon's miraculous power to sit months on end without eating, drinking, or moving, only meditating).
Details
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| How it all began, a dusty 15-y.o. meditating well |
He found a good spot and sat in the massive roots of a pipal tree [sacred fig, Ficus religiosa, Bodhi tree, more likely a local banyan tree] to meditate [1].
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| Looking refreshed and showered |
- See The Buddhist Forest Tradition Meditators of Asia
- Best early coverage: The Incredible Buddha Boy | GQ
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| "The Incredible Buddha Boy" | GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly magazine, May 7, 2006) |
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Thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of people made pilgrimages to visit the site in the forest (Terai jungle) to sit with or see (darshan) the miraculous boy motionless for hours, days, and months as rumored.
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| Tummo generates a lot of fiery heat. |
As a result of some of these widespread claims, Bomjon's followers believed he had to be an incarnation of the historical Buddha Gautama [2] (who Hinduism says was an incarnation (avatar) of the God Vishnu, which is also said of Jesus Christ, possibly for the purposes of conversion, and other peaceful spiritual figures interested in the maintaining of humanity).
Dharmasangha (aka Buddha Boy) inside fire
Bomjon is not the Buddha
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| Why do people keep bothering my meditation? |
Mahiswor Raj Bajracharya, the president of the Nepal Buddhist Council, has stated likewise: "We do not believe he is [a] Buddha. He does not have [the] Buddha's qualities" [4].
Then, on March 11, 2006, he disappeared and went missing for months [5]. On March 19, 2006, Bed Bahadur Lama of the Om Namo Buddha Tapaswi Sewa Samiti (ONBTSS) told reporters that he had been seen in Bara District and that [ONBTSS] had spoken to him for half-an-hour, during which Bomjon reportedly assured them that he would return in six years (at the age of 21) [6].
He was again seen on August 2007, preaching to crowds in Nepal’s Hallori jungle, about 100 miles south of the capital of Kathmandu [7].
Arrest
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| Budanilkantha looks nice from a distance. |
An arrest warrant had been issued in 2020 [9]. The CIB also confiscated Nepalese rupees (NPR 33 million = US $225,000.00) and foreign currencies from over 17 different nations equivalent to about $245,000 [8].
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| CIB: We got him, we finally got him. |
Issuing a press release after the day of his arrest, police stated that a key to an SUV, bluebooks of three two-wheelers, two laptops, 14 mobile phones, and multiple electronic devices were also confiscated during the search.
Controversies
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| Keep moving, dacoit. Your days of criminality are at an end due to the big hand of the CIB. |
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| We want the world to see you now, Bomjon. |
In 2010, Bomjon was investigated for accusations that he attacked a group of 17 villagers. He claimed that they were intentionally disturbing his meditation.
However, the villagers said they were just foraging for vegetables [10, 11, 12, 13]. Bomjon explained that he had taken "minor action" against them with just his hands [10, 11, 12, 13] after they had "tried to manhandle" him [11, 13] and stopped as soon as they apologized.
However, the alleged victims claim that for three hours he struck them on their head and back with an axe handle [10, 13], resulting in serious injury of one of them [12, 13].
Bomjon refused to attend any potential trial, stating: "Do you think a meditating sage will go to the court to hear a case? I took action against them as per the divine law [universal justice]" [10, 13].In 2012, Nepali police announced that they had rescued a Slovak [Central European] woman from Bomjon's followers, but other reports claim that she had been released voluntarily after media coverage of the kidnapping.
Newsweek reported she had been taken from a hotel by two of Bomjon's men on motorcycle, kept tied to a tree for three months, and accused of practicing witchcraft in order to disturb the Buddha Boy’s meditation [14].
However, another report claims she had been kidnapped from a monastery. When she was released, she had a broken arm [15, 16]. A week after her release, Bomjon's siblings accused him of holding his brothers captive overnight and beating his brothers and his sister [17].
Followers of Bomjon assaulted five journalists and destroyed their cameras after they had recorded one of Bomjon's sermons [15].
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| Oh my! Is it possible he would? |
During a press conference organized by women's rights groups, the nun also accused his wife of trying to keep the abuse hidden so as not to "attract attacks" on their [new] religion.
- Bomjon is married? He is no longer referred to as Tapaswi (austerities-practicing) Palden Dorje, so perhaps he disrobed to become a Vajrayana Buddhist lay practitioner.
Supporters of Bomjon claim that nun was in fact involved in theft and had been ejected from the monastery [18].
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| If I had it to do over again, it'd be different. |
An investigation was opened in January of 2019 after complaints from family members that four devotees had gone missing from several of Bomjon's ashrams [19].
In the same month, police raided one of Bomjon's ashrams in Nepal, but he was not found [20].
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| Prison self-immolation? Not without absorption |
On February 6, 2020, the Sarlahi District Court issued an arrest warrant against Bomjon. The following day, police raided another one of his ashrams in Kamalamai, Sindhuli, but Bomjon was not found there either.
However, police did arrest one of his disciples, Gyan Bahadur Bomjon [21]. More
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