Dalai Lama kiss boy and ask boy to suck his tongue
Executive summary
Video footage from a February event in Dharamshala shows the Dalai Lama kissing a young boy on the lips, pressing foreheads together, sticking out his tongue and saying “and suck my tongue,” prompting widespread outrage after it circulated online; the Dalai Lama’s office issued an apology saying he “regrets the incident” and called the interaction “innocent and playful” [1] [2].
1. What the footage shows and where it came from
Multiple news outlets reviewed the same clip in which an elderly Dalai Lama invites a boy to the platform, gestures to his cheek for a kiss, holds the boy’s face and then kisses him on the lips, puts foreheads together, sticks out his tongue and tells the child “and suck my tongue,” an episode that occurred at the Tsuglagkhang Temple complex in Dharamshala in late February and went viral when shared on social media in April [1] [3] [4].
2. The Dalai Lama’s apology and official framing
The Dalai Lama’s office publicly apologized, saying he “wishes to apologise to the boy and his family… for the hurt his words may have caused,” described his behaviour as lighthearted and “often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way,” and stated that he “regrets the incident” — the apology notably described the hurt caused but did not offer additional detail about the interaction beyond calling it playful [1] [2] [5].
3. Public outrage and institutional responses
The video provoked sharp condemnation online and in media, with commentators calling the exchange inappropriate or worse and at least one child-rights group labeling it a form of abuse; coverage across global outlets — BBC, The Guardian, CNN, NPR and others — emphasized both the visual evidence in the clip and the emotional response it generated from viewers [6] [2] [3] [7].
4. Defenders, context claims and political angles
Some Tibetan leaders and supporters defended the Dalai Lama as exhibiting affectionate, innocent behaviour and suggested the clip was being amplified for political reasons—accusations surfaced that “pro‑Chinese sources” or malicious actors were pushing the video to damage his reputation — a claim reported but offered without public evidence in the coverage [6] [4]; others pointed to Tibetan traditions about showing one’s tongue and cultural greeting practices, while mainstream reporting noted that sticking out the tongue in some Tibetan contexts is a separate custom and does not explain the kiss or the remark captured on the video [3] [4].
5. Ethical frame, accountability and limits of the public record
Journalists and child-rights advocates raised immediate ethical questions about an elderly leader physically holding and kissing a child and making a sexually suggestive comment, while the Dalai Lama’s apology, defenders’ statements and viral clip form the primary public record; reporting documents the incident, the apology and the polarized reactions, but there is no public reporting in the supplied sources of any formal legal investigation or independent child‑welfare finding arising from this specific event [2] [3] [8].
6. Bottom line and what remains unresolved
The available reporting establishes that the Dalai Lama kissed a boy on the lips and told him to “suck my tongue,” that the Dalai Lama’s office apologized and characterized the exchange as playful, and that the clip sparked both condemnation and defensive responses citing culture or political motive; what remains unresolved in the public sources provided here is any independent inquiry outcome, full context about consent dynamics in the moment beyond the video, and corroboration for claims that the clip’s circulation was orchestrated by external state actors [1] [6] [4].