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The office for the Dalai Lama apologized Monday after a video showed him asking a young boy to kiss him on the lips and then saying “suck my tongue” at an event in India.
In a statement, the office said that “His Holiness 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.”
The video clip comes from a February event at the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamsala that was attended by about 100 young students who had just graduated from the Indian M3M Foundation, according to the Guardian.
At one point a young boy asks the Dalai Lama if he can hug him. That’s when the world’s most prominent living Buddhist motioned to his cheek and said “first here.” The boy kissed his cheek and gave him a hug.
The Dalai Lama kept the boy close and said “I think here also” and then guided the boys chin before they kissed on the lips. The Dalai Lama then said “and suck my tongue” and was forehead to forehead with the boy while sticking out his tongue.
The boy stuck out his tongue also but then moved away, prompting laughter from the Dalai Lama.
Why is the Dalai Lama fondling this young boy and asking him to “suck his tongue”? pic.twitter.com/cZWHfbgTAd
— Stew Peters (@realstewpeters) April 9, 2023
Haq: Center for Child Rights, which is based in India, told CNN in a statement that it condemns “all form of child abuse.”
“Some news refers to Tibetan culture about showing tongue, but this video is certainly not about any cultural expression and even if it is, such cultural expressions are not acceptable,” the group said in its statement.
The 14th Dalai Lama is 87-year-old Tenzin Gyatso.
The office for the spiritual leader said that “His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident.”
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