This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
In 2018, allegations of sexual misconduct by the Sakyong and other senior leaders became public, leading to the resignation of Shambhala's governing Kalapa Council. An Interim Board commissioned the Halifax law firm Wickwire Holm to investigate. Its findings, released in February 2019, found it more likely than not that the Sakyong had sought sexual contact with female students in a pattern documented from 1995 until at least 2005, describing a significant power imbalance given his position. Separate and more serious allegations, that the Sakyong and other senior leaders had assaulted other individuals, were investigated and not substantiated.
The Sakyong stepped back from teaching and administrative duties following the allegations, then stepped aside from the organization entirely in February 2022. Shambhala's Interim Board published the Wickwire Holm findings in full rather than withholding them, and established an ongoing community code of conduct process governing teacher-student relationships and complaint handling.
The Wickwire Holm report's own published findings name no individual beyond leadership roles, and this atlas follows the same convention here: the findings are stated as an independent investigation's own conclusions, commissioned by Shambhala itself, not as an adjudicated fact.