CNN
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The top of the Tibetan government-in-exile has defended the Dalai Lama over a video during which the non secular chief kisses a baby on the lips after which asks him to “suck my tongue.”
The Dalai Lama’s actions had been “harmless” and had been misinterpreted, Penpa Tsering advised reporters at an occasion within the Indian capital New Delhi on Thursday, including that the controversy over the video had “damage” the chief’s followers.
“His holiness has all the time lived in sanctity, (following the lifetime of) a Buddhist monk, together with celibacy. His years of non secular observe have gone past sensorial pleasures,” Tsering stated. “His holiness is now being labeled every kind of names.”
In a press release Monday, the Dalai Lama – a Nobel peace laureate – apologized after a video of his trade with the boy went viral on social media and prompted a wave of worldwide criticism, together with accusations of kid abuse.
Tsering claimed that inner investigations steered “pro-Chinese language sources” had been behind the unfold of the video on social media, however gave no proof for the declare.
“The political angle of this incident can’t be ignored,” he stated.
The present Dalai Lama, 87-year-old Tenzin Gyatso, is the world’s best-known residing Buddhist determine.
The principal non secular chief of the “Yellow Hat” college of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is revered by hundreds of thousands because the reincarnation of his 13 predecessors.
He has been primarily based in India since 1959, following an unsuccessful Tibetan rebellion in opposition to Chinese language occupation. He later established a government-in-exile in Dharamshala, main hundreds of Tibetans who adopted him there.
A number of the Dalai Lama’s supporters declare his actions within the video, which was filmed within the northern Indian hillside metropolis of Dharamshala in February, have been misinterpreted below a Western lens.
“Expression of feelings and manners immediately has been melted collectively and develop into vividly westernized,” Namdol Lhagyari, a Tibetan activist in exile, wrote on Twitter Monday. “Bringing in narrative of different cultures, customs and social affect on gender and sexuality to interpret Tibetan approach of expression is heinous.”
February’s incident isn’t the primary time the octogenarian has sparked controversy lately.
He apologized after a 2019 interview with the BBC, throughout which he stated if a feminine Dalai Lama ought to succeed him, she “ought to be extra engaging.”
The earlier yr, he steered Europe ought to be stored for Europeans, when talking concerning the rising degree of African refugees getting into the continent.
