Dalai Lama apologises after video asking boy to 'suck my tongue'

"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," said a statement on the exiled leader's Twitter account, which has 19 million followers.

"His Holiness wishes to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused."

The statement said the Dalai Lama leader "often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident."

Reuters has not been able to obtain access to the moment when Dalai Lama asks the boy to suck his tongue.

The video, which has 1 million views on Twitter, also shows the Nobel peace laureate apparently giving the boy a peck on the lips in presence of an audience who is heard clapping and laughing, while a man captures the moment on a phone.

Tibetan lawmaker-in-exile Dawa Tsering on Monday said footage showing the Dalai Lama asking a young boy to "suck my tongue" during an event in northern India was “part of a joke”.

Speaking to journalists, Tsering read out the spiritual leader’s apology, adding that it was “part of..play with a child.”

The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, is regarded by Beijing as a dangerous separatist.

He has worked for decades to draw global support for linguistic and cultural autonomy in his remote, mountainous homeland.

He now lives in a compound next to a temple ringed by green hills and snow-capped mountains in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala.

Reuters