Dalai Lama has apologised after footage emerged of the spiritual leader kissing a boy on the lips and then asking him to “suck my tongue” at an event in northern India.
The Tibetan religious leader’s office said he wanted to apologise to the child and his family “for the hurt his words may have caused”.
The 87-year-old’s Twitter account, which has 19 million followers, published the apology on Monday.
“A video clip has been circulating that shows a recent meeting when a young boy asked his Holiness the Dalai Lama if he could give him a hug,” the statement read in part.
“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.”
His office explained that the Dalai Lama often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras.
“He regrets the incident,” the statement further read.
The apology comes after a video of the incident at an event in the hillside city of Dharamshala in February went viral on social media.
The video, which has over 1 million views on Twitter, shows the Nobel peace laureate giving the boy, who has not been identified, a kiss on the lips in presence of an audience that can be heard clapping and laughing, while a man captures the moment on a phone.
Many social media users criticised the Dalai Lama’s actions, and some child rights organisations tagged it “child abuse”.
Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, and he is the 14th occupant of the position.
He is in permanent exile in India, having fled to the country in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.