Monday April 10, 2023 | 1:00 p.m.
The Dalai Lama apologized Monday after a video circulated on social media in which he asked a child to “suck his tongue” during an event, sparking strong controversy and much criticism.
“His Holiness wishes to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as to his many friends around the world, for the harm his words have caused,” the Buddhist leader said in a statement.
The disturbing video shook social networks this Sunday and put the 87-year-old Dalai Lama at the center of a controversy.
“His Holiness often teases people he meets in innocent and mischievous ways, including in public and on camera. Regrets the incident,” the Dalai Lama’s office insisted.
The images, which were broadcast by the Voice of America, show the religious leader kissing a child on the mouth during a public act.
According to the video, the boy asks the Dalai Lama if he can give him a hug. To the question, and in the middle of what seems an improvised gesture, the man accepts and tells the child to come closer to him. The monk first received a hug and then told the boy to kiss him on the cheek.
After posing right in the middle of the scene, the Buddhist high priest took the boy’s hands and then pointed to his lips, brought them together and invited the boy to kiss him.
After the approach, the religious leader took the boy by the chin and kissed him, which triggered laughter and applause among those present.
At the moment, he continued a new indication from the Dalai Lama: “suck my tongue”, and once again brought the faces of both closer, leaving his tongue very close to the mouth of the minor.
After this new gesture, at which those present also laugh, the monk took the boy’s hand and caressed his face with the back. Before finishing, they both hugged each other again and the Buddhist priest continued with his ceremony.
The images triggered all kinds of responses on social networks, most of them rejecting this type of gesture and linking it to the abuse of minors.
The religious leader has already caused controversy after joking that he could surely be succeeded by a woman, but this should be “very attractive”.
Although there is no data that refers to kissing on the mouth or sucking the tongue as part of the traditions of this ancient people, it is known that in Tibet people usually show their tongue as a form of greeting.
Although in some Western nations such a gesture can even become a mockery, it is not the same for the Buddhist people since this action has a cultural charge.
For Tibetans, sticking out the tongue symbolizes that negative things will never be said about that person.
The history of this greeting comes from the existence of the anti-Buddhist emperor Lang Darma who lived in the 9th century, who is said to have had a black tongue. In order to prove to others that they had not been reincarnated as such a divinity, Tibetans show their language in a natural and daily way.
