Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia, File)
A resurfaced video shows the Dalai Lama, 87, seemingly telling a child to suck his tongue. But the supporters of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism say wait, it’s not what you think it is.
According to the supporters of the Dalai Lama, there is something called a “tongue greeting” in Tibetan culture–not “sucking.” Sticking the tongue out is a traditional Tibetan way of greeting someone.
Many have criticized the Dalai Lama over the incident, which has been seen as “inappropriate.”
The interaction occurred at a public event the religious leader was holding.
In the video, the Dalai Lama is shown kissing a young boy on the lips and then asking him to “suck his tongue.”
Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who lives as a refugee in India.
A full-scale revolt broke out in March 1959 in what was Tibet over Chinese control of the region, and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee. On March 31, 1959, he began a permanent exile in India, settling at Dharamsala, where he established a democratically based shadow Tibetan government. Today, the central region of Tibet is now an autonomous region within China, the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Dalai Lama publicly apologized to the boy and his family and said he “regrets the incident,” The Daily Mail reported.
“The Dalai Lama often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way,” the statement said.
“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.”
Some Tibetan activists defend his actions.
“At [the] Dalai Lama’s temple, a child asked him if he could hug Dalai Lama & he said yes, then he asked for a kiss & Dalai Lama did a kiss, then jokingly Dalai Lama said ‘you can suck my tongue’. So that was a part of a joke or just a play with the kid, so we should not go more than that,” tweeted Dawa Tsering, a member of the Tibetan Parliament In Exile, who, like the Dalai Lama, is based in Dharamsala, India, The Independent wrote.
“Expression of emotions and manners today has been melted together and become vividly westernized,” Namdol Lhagyari, a Tibetan activist in exile, wrote on Twitter. “Bringing in the narrative of other cultures, customs and social influence on gender and sexuality to interpret Tibetan way of expression is heinous.”
There is a Tibian tradition of tongue greeting.
Sticking out your tongue is traditionally a sign of respect, according to the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Fox News reported.
Photo: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia, File)
