"Long live the Dalai Lama!" cheer the 120 newly graduated music students who play some instruments as a prayer offering to the Buddhist leader, who watches the show from an armchair at the entrance of his temple in Dharamsala. Suddenly, a boy present at the event, wearing a yellow jumper, stands up, approaches a microphone and asks the Dalai Lama if he can hug him. He invites him to climb up to his seat and, pointing to his cheek, indicates to the child that he can give him a kiss. The kid obeys. After the kiss, comes the requested hug. The Dalai Lama continues to grab him and plants another kiss, this time on the lips. It is then when, face to face with the child, he sticks out his tongue. "Suck my tongue," says the 87-year-old, who bids the boy farewell with another hug and advises him to look for "good human beings who create peace and happiness."

This scene occurred on February 28 at a meeting of students with the spiritual leader organized by the M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of an Indian real estate company. The event concluded with the Dalai Lama climbing onto a golf cart and inspecting five cows and four calves that the Foundation was to deliver to a group of widowed women and a local school, represented on the spot by one of its students, who was apparently the boy with the tongue kiss.

"It was amazing to meet His Holiness and get his energy so positive," the boy said in a statement collected by a television covering a meeting that went completely unnoticed until the two-minute video of the Dalai Lama telling the boy to suck his tongue, went around the advanced world this April. Then a scandal broke out around Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the man who, in 1959, after the repression of the Chinese army in Tibet, crossed the Himalayas on horseback and took refuge in Dharamsala, in northern India, home to the central administration of the Tibetan government in exile.

Such was the international controversy and outrage, that the Buddhist leader's team, on its official Twitter account, had to publish an apology: "The Dalai Lama says he wants to apologize to the child, his family and the many friends around the world for the pain his words may have caused. His Holiness often mocks people he meets in an innocent and playful way, including in public and in front of cameras." That was the explanation. But the controversy still continues.

Was it really a joke by the monk who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989? Is it tradition in Tibet to greet each other with the tongue? In the film Seven Years in Tibet, Brad Pitt's character encounters a group of Tibetans who suddenly stick out their tongues at him. "It is considered a sign of respect and has also been used as a greeting in Tibetan culture," they say from the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California.

The Dalai gives the boy a kiss on the mouth

A tradition that, according to the Tibetans, would date back to the ninth century, specifically to the time when a king named Lang Darma, who had a black tongue and who was known for his cruelty, ruled in Tibet. As Buddhists, Tibetans believe in reincarnation and feared that this evil king would reincarnate, dragging the world into its darkness. Therefore, it became customary to greet by sticking out the tongue, to show that they did not have black and were not a reincarnation of Lang Darma.

"This custom has a long history in Tibetan culture, from a greeting to a sign of respect, or even to close a business. But what happened to the child has been a misinterpretation sought by the pro-Chinese to damage the image of the Dalai Lama, "says an activist of the Tibetan diaspora, who points directly to the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the "amplifier" of all the controversy raised after the video.

It is true that, in Beijing, where they see the Dalai Lama as a puppet of the CIA, some of the CCP-controlled media have taken advantage of the controversial viral video to sow doubt about the figure of the spiritual leader, his private life or resurrect old scandals. Like when, in 2018, the Dalai Lama admitted on Dutch public television that he had been informed about rapes of minors occurring in Tibetan Buddhist communities around the world since the early 1990s.

Twelve of the victims, who alleged they were physically and psychologically abused by Tibetan Buddhist teachers in the Netherlands and Belgium, had launched a petition calling on the Dalai Lama to speak out on the issue during a trip to Amsterdam. "I already knew these things, it's nothing new. 25 years ago someone mentioned a problem with these sexual accusations," he replied. Then, many pointed to him for having acknowledged that he knew about the sexual abuse and having done nothing. A few years earlier, in 2015, she was also beaten for sexism when she said in an interview with the BBC that a future Dalai Lama could be a woman, but "she would have to be beautiful or she would not be of much use."

During an interview this week with several international media correspondents, Penpa Tsering, head of the Central Tibetan Administration, considered Tibet's government-in-exile, said his people are hurt by the insinuations made about the Dalai Lama's viral video. He defines his gesture with the child as an "affectionate behavior of innocent grandfather", which was followed by his "jovial joke" with his tongue. "Now, who is the victim? The child does not complain, his mother does not complain. The victim here is His Holiness the Dalai Lama," he adds.

The group of students who participated in the event in which the M3M Foundation gave them five cows and four calves.

"His holiness has always followed the life of a Buddhist monk, including celibacy. His years of spiritual practice have gone beyond sensory pleasures." Tsering argues that the Dalai Lama is known around the world for his playful "antics" such as snuggling, hugging, touching his nose and greeting each other face to face, which is a "genuine manifestation of his compassion for all human beings, regardless of their status in society." Tsering says his government has found out who is behind the "orchestrated smear campaign" to tarnish the image of the spiritual leader. "Our investigation has found that the initial instigators were pro-Chinese sources. That explains the motivation behind making this video viral."

But not only from China have promoted criticism against the Dalai Lama after the video of the kiss to the child. Even many of those who certify Tibetan greetings by sticking out their tongues do not understand the final kiss in the act of Dharamsala.

"An 87-year-old man asking a child to perform a sexual act blatantly in a public place is very disturbing. Our primary concern is the innocent child who was the object of this disgusting request from a revered spiritual figure. Moreover, it is just as disturbing to read the minimization statement issued in the name of Buddhist enlightenment," reads a statement from the Survivors Network of Priest-Abused Priests, a U.S.-based organization.

"Some news reports are about Tibetan culture about showing the language, but this video is certainly not about any cultural expression and even if it is, such cultural expressions are not acceptable," said another letter from HAQ, a human rights organization focused on child protection, which operates from New Delhi.

On social networks, after the sequence went viral, there were also many reactions against the Dalai Lama. Like that of popular American rapper and Grammy winner Cardi B: "This world is full of predators who prey on the innocent."

@Lucasdelacal

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