The Dalai Lama apologizes for the video in which he asks a child if he wants to “suck his tongue”

He Dalai Lama has apologized after a video circulated in which he interacts with a boy, kissing him on the mouth and then asking if he wants to suck his tongue.

In a statement posted on his official website, the Tibetan spiritual leader said he wanted to apologize to the boy and his family “for the damage his words may have caused.”

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“His Holiness sometimes jokes with people he knows in an innocent and playful way, even in public and on camera. He is sorry for the incident”, says the statement.

The video has caused widespread criticism.

An unusual way of greeting

It is not clear when and where the incident happened. Nor who recorded it or who spread it.

It is even heard in the video that the first reaction of the attendees to the words of the Dalai Lama it’s hilarious

in many cultures sticking out your tongue can be considered disrespectful.

In Tibet it is a way of greeting

It has been a tradition since the 9th century, the time of an unpopular king named Lang Darma, known for his black tongue.

The people of Tibet, thinking that the king had been reborn, would stick out their tongues to show that they were not the monarch.

Now this greeting is a form of respect in this region.

The Dalai Lama, whose name is Tenzin Gyatso, fled Tibet in 1959 and has lived in exile in India ever since, following a revolt against Chinese rule in the region.

Other controversies

It is not the first time that this spiritual leader finds himself under public scrutiny.

In 2019, the Dalai Lama’s office apologized after he said in a BBC interview that any future female Dalai Lama should be “attractive”.

The Dalai Lama is the leading monk of Tibetan Buddhism. (GETTY IMAGES).

This response also generated criticism. His office apologized for any offense caused and attributed it to a misunderstood joke.

The Dalai Lama “has a keen sense of the contradictions between the globalized, materialistic world he encounters on his travels and the complex and more esoteric ideas about reincarnation that are at the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition,” the text says.

Throughout his life, the Dalai Lama has opposed the objectification of women and supported gender equality, the statement added.

Source: Elcomercio