The Dalai Lama (87) asked a boy to ‘suck his tongue’ at an event. After a wave of criticism, the spiritual leader apologizes.
“A video clip circulating shows a recent encounter where a boy asks His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give him a hug,” the Dalai Lama’s office said in a statement.
The rest of the interaction – which took place in Dharamsala at the end of February – is not written about. The boy asks and gets a hug. Then the Dalai Lama asks for and receives a kiss on the mouth. “And suck my tongue,” he says, after which the spiritual leader sticks out his tongue and brings his face to the boy. The Dalai Lama laughs and pulls the boy back for another hug, while the audience laughs and claps.
‘He often teases’
“His Holiness often teases those he meets in an innocent and playful manner,” the statement read. “Even in public and on camera.”
The Dalai Lama apologizes to the boy and his family. “And also to his many friends around the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.”
The recording has been circulating on social media for several days. Internet users called the interaction morbid and inappropriate. Sympathizers of the Dalai Lama point out that sticking out the tongue can be a form of greeting in Tibet. That’s not tongue sucking.
Rather discredited
The Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader of one of the branches of Tibetan Buddhism, was also discredited in 2019. Then he said that a possible female Dalai Lama should be “more attractive” in the future. He also apologized for that statement – in his own words meant as a joke.
The Tibetan spiritual leader lives in exile in Dharamsala, in northern India. In 1959 he fled after an uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. Beijing considers him a dangerous separatist.