Dalai Lama apologises for asking boy to suck his tongue
- Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, 87, has said sorry after video, which has gone viral, showed him sticking his tongue out and asking the youngster to suck it
- Sticking tongue out can be a form of greeting in Tibet; statement said the monk ‘regrets incident’, ‘often teases people he meets in innocent and playful way’
The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama apologised on Monday after a video which showed him asking a young boy to suck his tongue triggered a backlash on social media.
The video, which has gone viral, shows the Dalai Lama, 87, planting a kiss on the boy’s lips as he leaned in to pay his respects.
The Buddhist monk is then seen sticking his tongue out as he asked the child to suck it. “Can you suck my tongue,” he is heard asking the boy in the video.
The footage is from an event in McLeod Ganj, a suburb of Dharamsala city in northern India, on February 28.
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Dalai Lama apologies after video for asking young boy to ‘suck his tongue’
“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,” said a statement posted on the monk’s verified Twitter account.
