The Dalai Lama has apologised after footage showed him asking a young boy to ‘suck my tongue’ at a public event.
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‘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,’ said a statement on the exiled leader’s Twitter account.
‘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.’
The statement said that the Dalai Lama leader ‘often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident’.
The video has over 1 million views on Twitter and also shows the Nobel peace laureate apparently giving the boy a peck on the lips in the presence of an audience, who are heard clapping and laughing, while a man captures the moment on a phone. The clip has not been verified by Reuters.
The Dalai Lama is regarded by Beijing as a dangerous separatist and fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.
For decades, he has worked to draw global support for linguistic and cultural autonomy in his remote, mountainous homeland.
He currently lives in a compound next to a temple ringed by green hills and snow-capped mountains in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala.
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Picture: @DalaiLama / Twitter
