Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama apologized After a video went viral on social media she was shown telling a boy to “suck my tongue”. “A video clip is being circulated that shows a recent encounter when a young boy asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama if he could hug him. His Holiness accompanied the boy and his family as well as I want to apologize to his many friends.” “The world may be hurt by his words,” the spiritual leader’s office said in a statement.
What is controversy?
The incident took place on February 28 during an interaction at an event in Mcleodganj, a suburb of Dharamshala. According to GuardianAbout 100 school students were present in the program organized in the temple.
One of the students present there asked the Dalai Lama on the microphone if he could hug him. The 87-year-old asked the boy to come to the dais where he was sitting.
The monk then planted a kiss on the boy’s lips as he bowed to pay his respects. Then, resting his forehead on the boy’s forehead, he stuck out his tongue and asked the child suck it, The outlet said the boy walked away, while the Dalai Lama laughed and pulled the boy in for another hug.
reactions
The video was recorded by one of the attendees and has been viewed over 1 million times. Twitter users criticized the footage, calling it “disgusting” and “absolutely sick”.
One user tweeted, “Shocked to see this performance from the #DalaiLama. He has had to apologize for his sexist comments in the past as well. But now to say a little boy is sucking my tongue out is disgusting.”
“What did I just see? What must that kid be feeling? Disgusting,” said another.
Tibetan Culture and Tongue Greeting
as of 2014 BBC Sticking out your tongue may be considered rude, but in Tibet, it is a form of greeting. The outlet said this has been a tradition followed by the Tibetan people since the ninth century, when the region was ruled by Lang Drama, who was known to have a black tongue.
After the king’s death, when asked by the local people to confirm that they were not like him (or his reincarnation), he began to stick out his tongue.
The Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley also mentions this in their 2014 piece. The institute said on its website that sticking out one’s tongue is a sign of respect or agreement and is often used as a greeting in traditional Tibetan culture.
Other controversies related to the Dalai Lama
In 2019, the Dalai Lama apologized for saying that if his successor were to be a woman, she would have to be “attractive”. The comments, which drew criticism around the world, were made in an interview with BBC,
That same year, he also courted controversy after saying “Europe belongs to Europeans” on the issue of immigrants. The spiritual leader made the remarks at a conference in Malmö, Sweden, and said that refugees should return to their countries of origin.
In 2018, he said that Mahatma Gandhi wanted to give the prime ministership to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, but Jawaharlal Nehru refused because he was “self-centred”. He said that if Mahatma Gandhi’s words were true then India and Pakistan would have been united. The Tibetan spiritual leader later apologized for his remarks.
The Dalai Lama remains the universally recognized face of the movement for Tibetan autonomy. He fled to India in 1959 after a failed rebellion against Chinese rule in Tibet, perceived by Beijing as a separatist.
Last month, the Dalai Lama named an eight-year-old US-born Mongolian boy as the 10th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche, the third highest rank in Tibetan Buddhism.