Dalai Lama: Female successor 'must be very attractive'
The Dalai Lama will make his pious procession into Philadelphia next month. Ahead of his visit, some of his comments about women during a recent BBC interview are causing quite a stir.
The Dalai Lama will make his pious procession into Philadelphia next month. Ahead of his visit, he's creating quite a stir after telling a BBC interviewer that a female Dalai Lama would have to be attractive. The conversation turns to a female successor at about the 4:50 mark in the video.
While the Tibetan Buddhist religious leader was visiting London on a nine-day tour to encourage compassionate behavior, BBC interviewer Clive Myrie asked him if a woman could become the 15th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama responded, "Yes!" and then launched into a story like the one granddads tell, leaning forward and recalling an instance from over a decade ago.
During an interview 15 years ago for a women's magazine in Paris, the Dalai Lama said, a female reporter asked the same question.
"I mentioned, 'Why not?' " he recalled. "The female has biologically more potential to show affection … compassion." He also added that in this "troubled world, I think females should take more important of a role."
Things took a more awkward turn when the spiritual leader said a female successor "must be very attractive. Otherwise, not much use." Though he was laughing when he said it, when Myrie asked if the Dalai Lama was joking, he replied, "No. It's true!"
Myrie transitioned the interview, which focused largely on the Muslim refugee crisis, to the Dalai Lama's "religious rockstar status."
The self-proclaimed feminist allied with women in 2013 when he said having a female Dalai Lama would be good. He'll be visiting the city at the end of October to receive the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal and also participate in some events. The Constitution Center honor also comes with an $100,000 gift.
[Salon]