Dalai Lama
Spiritual leader apologizes for tongues incident
A video clip of the Dalai Lama has caused outrage on the Internet.
© imago images/Pacific Press Agency
A video clip in which the Dalai Lama asks a boy to suck his tongue causes a stir. The Dalai Lama apologizes.
An incident from February caused a stir on the Internet. A video of an event in a suburb of the Indian city of Dharamsala is currently circulating online, in which the Dalai Lama (87) asks a boy to “suck” his tongue. In an official statement mentions itthat the spiritual leader allegedly only wanted to tease the boy and regretted the incident.
According to media reports, the boy first asked the Dalai Lama if he could hug him. He then hugged the 87-year-old, first gave him a kiss on the cheek and then, when asked, kissed the mouth. Shortly thereafter, the Dalai Lama stuck out his tongue and asked the boy to “suck” it. Later he also tickled the boy. Among other things, the British “Daily Mirror” published an excerpt of the recording.
Statement by the Dalai Lama: “Apologies for the pain”
A statement was released on April 10th on the Dalai Lama’s official Twitter account, which reads, among other things: “His Holiness would like to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends around the world, for the pain he has suffered that his words might have caused.” Accordingly, the Dalai Lama often teases people he meets “in an innocent and playful way, even in public and in front of cameras. He regrets the incident.”
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, fled to India in 1959 and has lived there in exile ever since. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.