Had one known this story, one would have realised the flippancy of the uproar. The Tibetans believe in reincarnation, and by sticking their tongues out, they prove they aren’t the tyrant reborn. The practice had its origins in the 9 th century when a tyrant king with a black tongue died. It is also a sign of respect and - as a Tibetan friend of this author said - “an elderly person’s unconditional love for a young one”. In Tibet, sticking out your tongue has been a traditional way of saying hello. What if someone greets you with his tongue out? You may be offended, may even resort to violence. So, ‘hello’ and ‘hi’ have become a normal way to greet people. There’s also a tendency to uniformise global diversity. Modern mind seems to believe that it knows everything, even when all it knows is its own cultural mores - and that too quite scarcely. This takes us to the third aspect of this episode: The know-it-all phenomenon. Everyone is a suspect, till proven otherwise. At a time when faithlessness looms large, it seems there is no space for grandfatherly banters. His freshly grown up beard would create sensation and I would laugh no end. He would often pull my shirt and aggressively kiss the stomach. Of course, he would not ask me to “suck his tongue”! He was not a Tibetan, after all! But I felt the warmth, the tenderness and the unassuming simplicity of my grandfather. It evoked the memory of my late grandfather. When I saw the unedited video of the event, rewinding it again and again, all I could sense was a grandfatherly banter. What was also deliberately kept out was that the boy’s mother was present at the event, sitting near the Dalai Lama. What was cut out was how the entire incident was duly photographed and hailed by those present there. What was missing in this carefully edited video was how the Dalai Lama laughed and pulled the boy in for another hug. Forehead to forehead with the Dalai Lama, the boy quickly stuck out his tongue. And then he asked the boy to “suck my tongue”, sticking out his tongue. The Tibetan leader held him lovingly in his arms and said, “I think here also” - and he planted a kiss on his lips. Touching his cheek, he said, “first here”, after which the child kissed him and gave him a hug. Hearing this, the Dalai Lama asked the boy to come up to the platform where he was seated. ![]() In a video that has gone viral, a child requested His Holiness: “Can I hug you?” The event, which took place in late February at the Dalai Lama’s monastery in Dharamshala, was attended by about 100 young students. Why? Because he kissed a boy and asked him to “suck his tongue”! That very evening, I heard one of my colleagues in journalism saying, “What’s wrong with the Dalai Lama? I have stopped believing in these babas.” A few others sitting with her nodded their heads in vindicationĮven before one does a psycho-cultural analysis of the Dalai Lama’s act, the ‘modern’, ‘rational’ mind should have at least done the basic homework. But that hasn’t stopped the ‘modern’, ‘rational’ mind from judging him. A monk par excellence, the Tibetan leader has lived all his life preaching and practising love, compassion and non-violence. It happened last week with the 87-year-old Dalai Lama. Even the greatest of the souls can be judged, abused, and called names in no time. ![]() ![]() ![]() To add to it, it is also afflicted with a judgemental and know-it-all trait. It thinks faith is an antithesis to rationality. The so-called modern mind is cursed with faithlessness.
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