After stoking a controversy, the Dalai Lama’s apology has failed to impress the netizens.
The Dalai Lama has apologized after a video emerged showing the spiritual leader kissing a child on the lips and then asking him to “suck my tongue” at an event in northern India.
The response has seemingly done little to quell outrage over the incident on Twitter, with many taking to the social media platform to deem his apology inadequate.
Abhimanyu Bose posted: “The boy asked for a hug so you asked the boy if he wants to “suck his tongue”. And this is your idea of an apology? You think asking a child to suck your tongue is “playful”? Or “innocent”? Religious/spiritual leaders get away with so much bullsh*t.”
Another user wrote: “The audacity to call this playful and innocent. I’m so done.”
One more said: “This apology by @DalaiLama isn’t meaningful. He doesn’t acknowledge what he DID. He apologises for “hurt his words may have caused” rather than for asking a child to ”suck [his] tongue”. Apologies that deliberately downplay what someone did can never be a basis for forgiveness.”
The leader of Tibetan Buddhism, Tenzin Gyatso, was hosting students and members of the foundation at his temple in Dharamshala, India, where he lives in exile.
In the video, the boy approaches the microphone and asks, “Can I hug you?”
The 87-year-old says “OK, come” and invites him on stage.
The Dalai Lama motions to his cheek and says “first here” and the boy gives him a hug and kiss.
He holds the boy’s arm and turns to him, saying “then I think fine here also” as he points to his lips.
The spiritual leader then grabs the boy’s chin and kisses him on the mouth as the audience laughs.
“And suck my tongue,” the Dalai Lama tells the boy, sticking out his tongue.
They press their foreheads together and the boy briefly pokes out his tongue before backing away, as the Dalai Lama gives him a playful slap on the chest and laughs.
The boy goes to move away but the Dalai Lama shakes his hand and holds it to his cheek, before pulling him in for another hug.
He then offers the boy some spiritual advice, telling him to “look [to] those good human beings who create peace, happiness” and not “not follow those human beings who always kill other people”.
“This video is scandalous,” Colombian journalist Vicky Dávila wrote on Twitter. “The Dalai Lama kisses a boy who approaches him on the mouth. The attendees applaud and laugh instead of condemning this aberration.”
Last month, the official Twitter account for the Central Tibetan Administration shared a clip of the second half of the interaction.
“During his meeting with students and members of M3M Foundation at courtyard of Thekchen Choeling Tsuglakhang, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama advised a young Indian boy to look up to a good human being who always work for cultivating peace and happiness in the world,” Tibet.net wrote.
In 2019, the Dalai Lama was caught up in a sexism controversy after he remarked that if his successor were a woman, “she should be more attractive”.
His office was forced to issue an apology, saying that sometimes his “off-the-cuff remarks, which might be amusing in one cultural context, lose their humour in translation when brought into another”.
In a statement Monday, the office for the Dalai Lama said he “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,” adding he “regrets” the incident.
“His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras,” the statement said.
