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"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 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 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".
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 are heard clapping and
laughing, while a man captures the moment on a phone. Reuters
has not verified the clip.
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.
(Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
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