Penpa Tsering says the Dalai Lama was berated which really hurt the “sentiment of all his followers.”
The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile has defended the Dalai Lama over a video of the Buddhist leader asking a boy to suck his tongue.
The Nobel laureate apologized after footage from a public event, which also shows him apparently kissing the boy on the lips, went viral, sparking a wave of condemnation on social media that his actions amounted to abuse .
Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong — or political leader of the exiled Central Tibetan government — said Thursday that the Dalai Lama had been “unjustly labeled with all sorts of names that really hurt the sentiment of all his followers.”
The 87-year-old’s “innocent grandfatherly, affectionate attitude” seen in the footage had been misinterpreted, Tsering told reporters in New Delhi, adding that a life of celibacy and spiritual practice would take the Dalai Lama “beyond the sensory pleasures”.
The music video, filmed in February and distributed this month, has been viewed more than a million times on Twitter.
Tsering said investigations showed “pro-Chinese sources” were involved in making it go viral, adding “the political angle of this incident cannot be ignored.”
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, is considered a “dangerous separatist” by Beijing.
The Dalai Lama has made the Himalayan city of Dharamshala his headquarters since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. India considers Tibet part of China, although it hosts Tibetan exiles.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent decades building global support for linguistic and cultural autonomy in his remote, mountainous homeland.