Nepalese court sentences “Buddha Boy” to ten years in prison for sexual abuse

Kathmandu, Nepal — A Nepalese court on Monday sentenced a man believed by thousands to be a reincarnation of Buddha to 10 years in prison for child sex abuse, a court official said.

As a teenager, Ram Bahadur Bamjon attracted international attention in 2005 when tens of thousands of people came to see the “Buddha Boy” sitting cross-legged under a tree in a dense forest in southeastern Nepal for nearly ten months.

Judicial officer Sikinder Kaapar of the Sarlahi District Court in southern Nepal said a judge also ordered Bamjon, 33, to pay $3,750 in compensation to the victim.

Bamjon could not be reached for comment by Reuters, but his lawyer Dilip Kumar Jha said he would appeal to a higher court.

Bamjon was arrested in January in a house on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

The verdict comes nearly two decades after he first attracted international attention when, at the age of 15, he retreated into the jungle for ten months to pray, as local media reported at the time. His followers once claimed that He did this without food, sleep or water.

These claims were never independently verified, but they led some to praise him as the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in Nepal about 2,500 years ago and later became known simply as the Buddha, meaning “the enlightened one.”

Additional reporting by CNN’s Sugam Pokharel and Tara John.