Tibetan Buddhism’s top spiritual leader apologized after a video circulated on social media that showed him kissing a young boy on the lips at a public event in India and where he also appears to have asked the boy to suck his tongue.
(Bloomberg) — Tibetan Buddhism’s top spiritual leader apologized after a video circulated on social media that showed him kissing a young boy on the lips at a public event in India and where he also appears to have asked the boy to suck his tongue.
The Dalai Lama “wishes to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world for the hurt his words may have caused,” according to a statement posted on his Twitter account.
“His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras,” the statement read. “He regrets the incident.”
News outlets reported that the footage was from an event in February in Dharamshala, the northern Indian hill town which is the base for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile. The religious leader has lived there for more than six decades after fleeing Chinese rule.
India’s government didn’t immediately comment on the footage and the subsequent uproar. The office of the Dalai Lama said it would not make any additional comments beyond his message on Twitter.
The video wasn’t accessible on China’s social media websites, which regularly censor content from the Dalai Lama. Beijing considers him to be a dangerous separatist campaigning for an independent Tibet and prohibits displays of his picture or any public show of devotion toward the 87-year-old spiritual leader.
–With assistance from Jing Li and Sudhi Ranjan Sen.
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