Dalai Lama Issues Apology to Minor Boy, Family Over Viral ‘Kissing’ Video
Guwahati: The Tibetan spiritual leader apologised to the boy and his family on Monday, a day after a video of him kissing the boy on the lips caused uproar.
The official statement read, “A video clip has been circulating that shows a recent meeting when a young boy asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama if he could give him a hug. His Holiness wishes to apologise to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused. His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident.”
The Dalai Lama was seen kissing a boy’s lips in the social media footage that went viral on Sunday when the boy approached him to give him a hug. The boy was told to “suck it” by the Buddhist monk who had extended his tongue during the incident. The Dalai Lama can be heard asking, “Can you suck my tongue?” in the viral footage.
The video clip was shared on Twitter by a user captioned with, “Pedo-Dalai Lama kissed an Indian boy at a Buddhist event and even tried to touch his tongue, the boy then resisted. What a disgusting scene. In the video published on the ‘official’ networks, the scene was obviously cut… as if by magic!”
There was a wide range of responses to the tweet from online users. Some followers became incensed as a result of the occurrence. But supporters of the senior Buddhist monk asserted that the boy was the subject of “joking around” with the monk.