Emily Baker and Echo Hui
ABC Investigations
August 9, 2023
Camille Kwan is on the phone to a man venerated by his followers as a living Buddha.
She rolls her eyes, scribbles in her notebook and flashes what she's written to a camera rolling on her conversation.
"Angry. Stupid."
It's been over a year since she's been permitted to see her son Philip* — something she's told requires Master Wang's permission.
At one point during the argument, Camille slips into English. It's a language Wang Xin De doesn't speak. He appears to realise there might be someone else in the room.
There are a tense few moments as the phone goes silent and attempts to call him back are rejected.
But that afternoon, for the first time since she arrived in Tasmania, Camille is invited to see her son.
'Whatever he says, you listen'
Jin-Gang-Dhyana is well-known in its home base of Hobart, where its eccentricities have been not just accepted but celebrated by media and MPs for more than two decades.
The group — also known as Holy Tantra Esoteric Buddhism — has made generous donations to local charitable causes such as Crime Stoppers, and its followers' lion and dragon dances were once a key feature of cultural events.
In years past, Wang Xin De was a common sight in the Tasmanian parliament. State Labor and Liberal premiers have appeared at events alongside the group's leader, and his promotion of Chinese culture has attracted praise from Chinese diplomats and media.
Former followers say the public perception and support for the group makes it difficult to speak about their experience in a group they describe as operating like a cult.
"There are two principles: You never have questions, and the teachings are a secret," said one former member, who asked to remain anonymous.
"Whatever he says, you listen, you put it in your mind. That's all. Don't question it."
In a phone call with 7.30, Mr Wang disputed this as a "misunderstanding" and said followers were permitted to question his teachings.
Spiritual guidance in a time of need
Camille was introduced to Holy Tantra Esoteric Buddhism almost 30 years ago.
The Hong Konger, who has always been spiritual, was going through a bad break-up when a family friend spoke with her about the Tasmania-based group.
Hong Kong-based gurus provided spiritual guidance when she was at home, and regular trips to Tasmania provided welcome relief from busy city life. She spent the Hobart retreats with other female followers cooking, cleaning and gardening, and practising meditation and spiritual reflection.
Her then two-year-old son Philip joined her on her trips from 2002. For a long time, she said Holy Tantra felt like family.
"I'm a single mother [and] my son is lacking some male relationship, and so he must feel very happy with all the big boys and uncles," Camille told 7.30.
"The first 10 years we work very well, feel good."
As a teenager, Philip struggled with his mental health.
In 2020, desperate for help, Camille persuaded her adult son to move to Hobart to live with senior members of Jin-Gang-Dhyana. It's a decision she has come to deeply regret.
In text messages seen by the ABC, sent early in Philip's time in Hobart, the pair show affection and plan to reunite. But a few months later, Philip said it was "not right" to communicate with his mother as it was affecting his spiritual practice.
"[Philip] believes … our whole family, we have a certain level of the bad karma," Camille told 7.30.
"That's why his task, or his mission [is] to accumulate the spiritual merit to replace the karma."
Who is Master Wang?
To Mr Wang's followers, he is a living Buddha. Jin-Gang-Dhyana adherents believe their leader knows everything about the universe and defer to him on major life decisions such as choice of partner and whether they attend university.
But Mr Wang was not always a religious leader. Born in China in 1945, he trained, competed and later coached in Shaolin martial arts.
In a 2005 interview with Hobart's Mercury newspaper, Mr Wang claimed he spent the 1980s travelling his home country wowing massive crowds with his miraculous healing powers.
He told the Hobart journalist he could help paralysed people walk, make breast tumours disappear and cure insomnia in performances so popular his travelling show was dubbed the "Wang whirlwind".
The 78-year-old moved to Tasmania in 1989 after a stint in a Chinese jail. He has previously given different reasons for his imprisonment, including links with alleged spies and punishment for what the Chinese Communist Party dubbed "false performances".
He has also given different reasons for his release — by one telling, he was freed after healing a government official's stomach cancer.
In a phone interview with 7.30, Mr Wang confirmed he had actually been imprisoned in China for three years on charges of indecent assault and fraud.
"When I fled abroad and was caught [by the Chinese police], they made up the crimes," Mr Wang said.
He successfully appealed the conviction in 2005.
Mr Wang established Jin-Gang-Dhyana in Hobart in 1991 then opened additional branches in Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand and the US in the following years.
The group has since accumulated a property portfolio worth millions of dollars, mostly concentrated in southern Tasmania. Its centrepiece is a huge site about an hour from Hobart, on which Mr Wang plans to develop the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere.
Mr Wang claims to be the 28th patriarch of Jin-Gang-Dhyana Buddhism. Its beliefs differ from many sects. Unlike almost all other Buddhist movements, monks and nuns – including Mr Wang – are permitted to marry and have children.
Professor Jay Garfield was the head of philosophy at the University of Tasmania in the 1990s when he first met with Mr Wang.
Now based at Smith College in Massachusetts, and a visiting professor at the prestigious Harvard Divinity School, Professor Garfield said he struggled to get answers from Mr Wang about the group's beliefs and practices – something he said was unusual among Buddhist groups.
At a lavish dinner with Mr Wang and his followers at their Sandy Bay property, he pressed Mr Wang for information on Jin-Gang-Dhyana but received "no answers at all".
"He was followed constantly by video cameras," Professor Garfield said.
"I came out of that dinner well fed and completely bemused."
'If one does bad things, there will be bad rewards'
Holy Tantra adherents are encouraged to write regular reports to Mr Wang covering their reflections, how they apply spiritual learnings in their daily life and upcoming decisions that may require their leader's permission.
In 2022, Camille wrote reports to Mr Wang requesting to see her son. WeChat messages show she received approval to visit Hobart two months after making her first request.
Once she arrived in Tasmania, Camille alleges her passport was removed by a guru and that she stayed at a property without access to bathing facilities.
Camille sought permission from Mr Wang to access a shower at another property and received his approval about three weeks later. Her reports requesting she take her son to the doctor to treat his ear infection went unanswered.
Mr Wang confirmed he imposed restrictions on his disciples during retreats but said their attendance was voluntary.
"They want to learn our teachings, and we have our own principles and rules," he said.
"When believers come, they must abide by these rules."
Camille saw her son only briefly without supervision during her four months in Hobart.
"This was really killing me, not [being] able to see my son," Camille told 7.30.
She went home to Hong Kong hoping their contact would resume as normal. It did not. After months of mostly ignoring her messages, except to discuss finances or spiritual study, Philip cautioned his mother her concerns about him staying with the group were causing bad karma.
He later linked the death of a former follower to that person’s decision to leave.
"Do you know how precious it is to be Shi Fu [Master Wang]'s disciple," he wrote to his mother.
"How come many families face so many problems, like illness, like accident … we were always blessed by Shi Fu."
7.30 spoke with Philip. He said his spiritual practice had healed his mental ill-health and blamed his untreated ear infection on his interactions with his mother, who he said was “spreading false information” about Mr Wang and Jin-Gang-Dhyana.
He said Mr Wang was Buddha, that Buddha has “infinite positive energy”, and that he was choosing to stay with the group.
“I have made a conscious decision to stay,” he said.
Mr Wang referred to Camille's challenging of the group as evidence she was possessed by a Mara, or demon, and accused her of using “verbal violence” against her son.
"She is creating bad karma. And if one does bad things, there will be bad rewards."
Camille dismissed the accusations as “totally ridiculous”, and said she had witnessed two other women branded demons after falling out with Mr Wang in the past.
Signs of 'cult'-like operation
Hong Kong Buddhist Psychology and Mental Health Association president Dr Ho Lok Sang said there were signs that Jin-Gang-Dhyana operated like a cult.
Dr Ho – also a director of the Buddhist Education Foundation of Canada – said it was not uncommon for Buddhists to practice silence but that it was unusual to block communications between individuals.
Claims that leaving one particular master would accumulate bad karma were also “a bit off,” said Dr Ho.
He said Buddhist teaching required disciples to have critical thinking and free minds.
"Buddhism teaches disciples to take refuge from the teaching of Buddha, not to take refuge of one master," said Dr Ho.
Mr Wang rejected the suggestion his group was a cult, citing his group's ties with the Chinese Communist Party as evidence of its legitimacy.
"Is it possible for a cult to hold a joint meeting in Beijing with the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party? Will the Communist Party accept cults?" Mr Wang said.
"We have very close ties with Buddhist organisations worldwide."
'I think he ... is manipulated'
7.30 joined Camille on her second trip to Hobart to try to see her son.
She dropped breakfast at the group’s temple in the Hobart CBD and visited Philip’s workplaces in an attempt to see him without supervision from senior members of the group.
"Mum, it will be better if you write to Shi Fu first and get permission," he texted one evening after she tried to make plans.
For almost a week, Camille's requests to see Philip went ignored. Instead, Mr Wang said her son was a free man – an assertion backed by Philip in his communications to her and during his interview with 7.30 — and questioned her faith and sanity.
After the ABC filmed with Camille during her morning ritual, and after a terse phone call with Mr Wang, she received a long-awaited voice message advising a reunion had been arranged – at the temple, and under supervision.
"He keeps saying this is not allow him to go out this building because the outside world hasn't been blessed by Master," Camille said after their meeting.
She does not accept her son or Mr Wang's insistence Philip is choosing to isolate from her and stay with the group.
"He wrongly believed the doctrines about creating karma," Camille said.
"And that type of doctrines … is you need to separate with mother and concentrate on his practice.
"I think he … is manipulated."
* name has been changed
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-09/holy-tantric-esoteric-buddhism-730/102696856
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