If you don't have an "only in Boulder" belief, then this page is not for you. It is a work in progress with plenty more to say.

S.B.T.C Shambhala Bon Taoism Confucianism 

Boulder has long been a haven of peaceful worship; but sometimes all is not what it seems. 

Imagine a religious leader who drinks too much, beat his wife publicly and gives his child a world-wide religion to Lead. 

Hippies in Boulder 

Back in the 70s, Hippies in Boulder were Beat Poets and disciples of Choygum Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala, and the Naropa Institute. There were Lots of drugs in Boulder too. An article about Rinpoche's influence in Boulder's culture was published early last year in The Sunday Daily Camera (2-25-2024); reporting on accusations of physical and sexual violence by Choygum Trungpa and having sex with students, including referring them as ancient religious rituals to Buddha. In my observations these rituals complete with bodyguards (and perhaps police protection) were wrong; these people got away with whatever they wanted. 

Shambhala, the Sacred Path of the Warrior, was founded in Boulder, Co in the 1970s by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the hippies at the Pygmy Farm.  Everbody supposedly loved him and worshipped with him but it was public knowledge that he drank and drugged himself to death. He died In 1987.  Sometime in the mid 1980's there was a reported incidence of Rinpoche beating his wife while vacationing in Aspen. I wonder how that affected his son, who grew up in the same neighborhood as JonBenet on University Hill. He was still living there at the time of JonBenet's murder.

SBTC

And, I believe he was struggling with the pressure of leading a world-wide religion. After Chogyam Trungpa's death, a new interim leader from New Jersey  was appointed Rinpoche although he didn't help their reputation. He died from Aids in the early 1990s, but not until after he caused a huge scandal; he infected members of his congregation with HIV while failing to disclose his condition to those he had sex with. In 1996 Trungpa's then 20 year old son, Sakyong Mipham became the new Rinpoche. He had his own vision and was in the process of forming a new religion based on the old religion called Shambhala Buddhism; the path to Nirvana, with elements of  Shambhala, Bon, Taoism and Confucianism, SBTC. Shambhala Buddhism soon departed the Boulder area leaving the Boulder chapter behind and moving to Nova Scotia World Headquarters. 

Last report he was living as a monk in exile in a Far Eastern Country with no extradition treaty with the U.S. He went there because he caused "sexual harm" to his followers, some of them were children. They are known as dharma brats.