The Dalai Lama has issued an apology on social media over a video that shows him kissing a young boy on the lips and then asking him to suck his tongue.
The undated clip of the boy's public audience with the globally respected spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists was circulated on social media and drew angry comments from Twitter users.
“His Holiness wishes to apologise to the boy and his family, as well as many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused,” the Dalai Lama said in a statement on Twitter on Monday.
It said he “often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way”.
“He regrets the incident,” the statement read.
A representative of the Dalai Lama's office did not respond to The National's calls.
The video sparked online criticism of the 87-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner.
“Dalai Lama calls up a minor boy, kisses him on the lips, and asks for a tongue kiss as well,” said Saif, a Twitter user.
“What am I seeing? Is this Dalai Lama?” said Jas Oberoi, another user.
The Dalai Lama has courted controversy in the past as well.
The world’s most popular refugee sparked a row in 2018 when he said in Sweden that while the European Union should provide education and training to refugees, only a “limited number” should be allowed to stay and others should return to “their own land” as “Europe is for Europeans”.
In an interview with the BBC in 2019, he said that any future female Dalai Lama should be “attractive”. He apologised after being criticised for the remark and said he was “joking”.
The title of Dalai Lama is passed on through an elaborate quest by senior Tibetan monks, which could take years, to find the reincarnation of the former spiritual leader. It involves reading spiritual signs, extensive research and interpreting visions.
The current Dalai Lama has been living in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala in India since 1959, where he has set up a Tibetan government-in-exile after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959.
