9/2/2023 0 Comments Dalai lama meaningThe video that has been widely circulated on social media shows the Dalai Lama kissing a young Indian boy on his lips after he came forward to pay his respects. However, there is no mention in either this folklore or the broader traditional greeting of sucking the tongue. The film offers no further explanation of their actions.Īccording to Tibetan folklore, people in the Buddhist culture began sticking out their tongue to disassociate themselves from the 9 th century Tibetan king Lang Darma, who was infamous for his cruelty and was said to have had a black tongue.Īs Buddhists believe in reincarnation after death, the tradition is said to have emerged as a way for people to show they were not the king reincarnated and therefore not to be associated with his evil deeds. Perhaps the most famous Western cultural reference to this tradition comes in the film Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt, where Pitt’s character encounters a group of children who stick out their tongues at him. Sticking out your tongue is traditionally a sign of respect or agreement and has also been used as a greeting in Tibetan culture, according to the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. What is the Tibetan culture of tongue greetings? “Bringing in narrative of other cultures, customs and social influence on gender and sexuality to interpret Tibetan way of expression is heinous.” “Expression of emotions and manners today has been melted together and become vividly westernised,” Namdol Lhagyari, a Tibetan activist in exile, wrote on Twitter. So that was a part of a joke or just a play with the kid, so we should not go more than that,” said Dawa Tsering, a member of the Tibetan Parliament In Exile which, like the Dalai Lama himself, is based in Dharamshala, India. “At Dalai Lama’s temple, a child asked him if he could hug Dalai Lama & he said yes, then he asked for a kiss & Dalai Lama did a kiss, then jokingly Dalai Lama said ‘you can suck my tongue’. Some Tibetan activists, however, have argued that the incident is one of a “joke” being overblown, while others suggested the Dalai Lama was being attacked over “ Tibetan way of expression”. Some commentators and victims’ groups have compared the spiritual leader’s conduct to “child abuse”. Many have criticised the Dalai Lama over the incident, which was called out in reactions online as being “inappropriate” and “disgusting”. “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.” “The Dalai Lama often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way,” the statement said. The leader of Tibetan Buddhism did not make any reference to Tibetan traditions in his own statement after the incident, where he publicly apologised to the boy and his family and said he “regrets the incident”. The Dalai Lama has been defended by his supporters online after a video showed him kissing a boy on the lips and asking him to “suck his tongue”, with some arguing that the exchange can be partly explained by Tibetan culture.
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