Penpa Tsering: Dalai Lama is real victim, Chinese sources pushed on resurfacing of video

The Chinese sources were pushing on the resurfacing of the video of Dalai Lama kissing a boy, who is a real victim here, said Penpa Tsering, Sikyong of the Tibetan Government-in-exile here on Thursday.
Penpa Tsering made the above remarks while issuing clarification on the viral video of the Dalai Lama, purportedly showing him kissing a little boy. He said, “Through our prima facie evidence, we found that it’s all Chinese sources who were pushing on the resurface of this video.”
When asked to comment on the viral video of the Dalai Lama, showing him kissing a little boy and asking him to suck his tongue, Penpa Tsering said, “For God’s sake His Holiness is 87 years old. He’s going to be 88. And he lived a monk’s life under oath of celibacy over the last 87 years.”
“Forget about the sensorial pleasures. He does not derive any pleasures from sensory. You always talk about deeper understanding, to redeem oneself from Samsara. So he is beyond the sensorial pleasures,” he added.
Blaming China for the video going viral, Penpa Tsering said, “Unfortunately, Chinese agents were involved. If you look at the extent and the scale of its operation and how all the mainstream news media took it up, one can definitely imagine who is behind this.”
“So now the question is who’s the real victim here? The boy was very happy after the meeting, after the event. The mother was very happy then, who else has a problem? His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is being made a victim who spent all his life teaching and practising compassion. That is why I encourage people to look at the whole video, see for yourself how every single thing happened, and then you can decide for yourself whether that was lust or love of an 87-year-old man,” the Tibetan politician added.
Sikyong also said that he hopes that the mainstream media understood that they became tools of the Chinese government once they started broadcasting this. He also said, “I’m happy that they (mainstream media) did not repeat the programmes because they understood what was behind that. But unfortunately, the Chinese government will still keep pushing it, I think till the next week, because there are some upcoming events. So they will keep pushing that.”
An official statement was released by the office of the Dalai Lama on Monday, stating that the Tibetan spiritual leader “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 Tibetan spiritual leader’s remarks came on the heels of the video going viral on social media.