Recalling earlier occasions when Dalai Lama has triggered controversy and embarrassment

The Tibetan spiritual leader has apologised for his conduct seen in a viral video. This is not the first time. His office has had to say sorry earlier for statements about a woman successor and Jawaharlal Nehru.

File photo of Dalai Lama arriving for prayer in the Tsugla Khang Temple at Mcleodganj in Dharamshala. (PTI)

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There was controversy on Monday (April 10) after a video on social media appeared to show the Dalai Lama, the venerated 87-year-old spiritual leader of Tibetans, indulging in seemingly inappropriate behaviour with a small boy in public.

The Dalai Lama’s office issued a statement saying “His Holiness wishes to apologise to the boy and his family… His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident.”

The Dalai Lama has in the past triggered controversy with actions and statements that have been criticised as being erratic and embarrassing, and possibly male chauvinist.

* In 2015, in an interview with a British broadcaster, the Dalai Lama said that his successor, or the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, “can be a woman, but [she must] be very attractive”, or she would be of “not much use”.

* In August 2018, the Dalai Lama told students at the Goa Institute of Management that “Jawaharlal Nehru’s self-centred attitude was the reason why Muhammad Ali Jinnah could not be appointed the prime minister of India”. His office later apologised for his remark.

* In June 2019, when another journalist asked him about his previous comments about the possibility of a woman reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, he had said that if she was not attractive “people, I think, prefer not see her… that face”.

After the comment sparked a huge controversy, the Dalai Lama’s private office said in a statement that “His Holiness genuinely meant no offence”, and that “he is deeply sorry that people have been hurt by what he said and offers his sincere apologies”.

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The statement said that “The Dalai Lama has a keen sense of the contradictions between the materialistic, globalised world he encounters on his travels and the complex, more esoteric ideas about reincarnation that are at the heart of Tibetan Buddhist tradition. However, it sometimes happens that off the cuff remarks, which might be amusing in one cultural context, lose their humour in translation when brought into another.”