The Dalai Lama has apologised for saying that any future female successor would need to be more attractive.
During an interview last month, the Tibetan spiritual leader, 83, also stated that a female Dalai Lama would be not much use if she was unattractive.
His office have now issued a statement, claiming his words were a misunderstood joke.
The statement said he was referring to his own reincarnation and genuinely meant no offence.
It read: He is deeply sorry that people have been hurt by what he said and offers his sincere apologies.
Continuing on, it said: His Holiness, a monk now in his mid-eighties, has a keen sense of the contradictions between the materialistic, globalised world he encounters on his travels and the complex, more esoteric ideas about reincarnation that are at the heart of Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
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However, it sometimes happens that off the cuff remarks, which might be amusing in one cultural context, lose their humour in translation when brought into another.
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He regrets any offence that may have been given.
The statement added that the Dalai Lama had long opposed the objectification of women and supported gender equality.
It also claimed his original remarks were made in conversation with the then Paris editor of Vogue magazine, illustrating how they were intended as a joke.
Regardless of the apology, the comments have sparked a series of funRead More – Source
