I came to Canada in October 2018, and like many other newcomers, I am no exception to any of the stresses and challenges they face. Somehow, I managed myself and my family through these challenges with support from my family/friends and the emotional resilience I learned from my root guru, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
After much of the usual new immigrant struggles, everything seems to settle down, and it felt like a smooth sail after a storm until recently. I had an accident on my dominant hand at home and almost lost two fingers. I underwent digital reconstruction, and my therapy has not finished yet. Still, I was not so much shaken by the accident as by the recent news of the maliciously edited viral video on His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I came across the video on April 11, and it sent me into a state of poignant shock for a few days. I knew the video clip was misinterpreted, but the world’s response and reaction got on my nerve and to the core of my being. Before coming to Canada, I worked with the Central Tibetan Administration, popularly known as the exile government of Tibet. I spent 16 years as an exiled Tibetan Civil Servant, which gave me sufficient exposure to Tibetan affairs and the offices of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to see through the brewing scheme to discredit His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
As days passed into the weeks, the Tibetan social media world flooded YouTube with original uncut videos with unending threads of explanation of the video and its psycho-social contexts. There was a press release by the Sikyong (President) of the Tibetan exile government. The Buddhist community and other supporters worldwide rose in unison to protest the mainstream media for their lack of verification and for being carried away by sensationalism. These peaceful protests spread across various parts of India, from cities in Australia to Europe, New York, and Toronto.
Nevertheless, those clickbait YouTubers and podcasters continue to post their videos with exaggerated laughter and biased narratives, displaying their ignorance. Seeing their frenzy to make the video and commentary on that maliciously edited viral video was a sight. Even some famous Western celebrities succeeded in raven attention on Twitter. Some more sensible YouTubers later came up with the corrective video and apologized. Among them, one admitted to the overwhelming response and viewership. Therefore, he decided to make a few sequels even though the subject was irrelevant to his usual topics, but those were corrective videos. One of those clickbait youtubers included the famous “Project Nightfall,” also known as “Nightfam .” The channel has 14 million followers, but if anyone quickly skims through the various videos posted there, they will notice that the average comments on each video range from a few hundred to about three-four thousand, but the fake edited video of H.H. the Dalai Lama has over ten thousand comments. So, anyone can understand the reason behind their frenzied videos and podcasts. The temptation didn’t even spare the mainstream news media.
As I think of those viewers who were utterly taken aback by the maliciously edited video and have passed their instant judgment, their moral panic is understandable to some extent, for we live in a society where child abuse is one of the most prevalent yet under-reported crimes. In 2022 WHO reported: “1 in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report having been sexually abused as a child”. And the video is also edited in such a way that it only leaves viewers with only one hypersexualized peephole to look through. All they can see is what is already planted in their minds, “child abuse .” Anyone with little or no knowledge of the Dalai Lama or Tibet will be carried away by the contagious influence of collective behaviour. Anyone sincerely concerned or distressed by the viciously edited video should at least take a minute to sit back and think. How can anyone judge someone’s character by watching a few-second of edited and cut-off all-context video? That, too, of a person who has spent his entire life for world peace and preaching compassion. Whose work has been acknowledged worldwide with numerous prestigious awards such as Nobel Peace Prize, Templeton Award, US Congressional Gold Medal, Lantos Human Right prize, Earth Prize, Advancing Human Liberty from Freedom House, Roman Magsaysay Award, and the list is still long. Yet again, the so-called smart age netizen of the world decided to undermine every intellectual and human intelligence involved in bestowing these awards to the Dalai Lama and decided to judge his character by just watching a few seconds of edited viral video. How smart is that? I will never understand, but one thing that hasn’t changed is his stream of receiving international Awards. Recently amidst the commotion of the maliciously edited video, The Dalai Lama received the Scheherazade Foundation Gold Medal for his humanitarian efforts in advocating and promoting world peace and religious harmony on April 14, 2023. Other prominent recipients of the Award included Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou and Paulo Coelho. Later, on April 26, he was also presented with the Ramon Magsaysay Award personally after 64 years. The Award is popularly known as Asia’s Nobel Prize.
I added up the thread of events starting from the M3M Foundation public event on February 28, from where this viral video footage was stolen.
On March 27, the Dalai Lama initiated the ceremony to recognize an eight-year-old US-born Mongolian boy as the reincarnation of 10th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche, one of the most important religious figures in Mongolia. Please check for further details online. This ceremony was held in Dharamsala, India. Recognizing Mongolia’s highest religious (Buddhist) leader by His Holiness the Dalai Lama was an open challenge to China’s legitimacy over Mongolia and the Buddhist faith. Last time when His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized the second leading Tibetan Buddhist leader, a six years old Tibetan boy named Gendun Choekyi Nyima, popularly known as Panchen Lama, in May 1995. The boy and the whole family disappeared since then. Even to this date, their whereabouts are unknown. The 6-year-old boy is often referred to as the youngest political prisoner.
On April 08, maliciously edited video clips from the February event surfaced and were made viral worldwide.
On April 14, the Dalai Lama was conferred the Scheherazade Foundation Gold Medal, acknowledging his work for peace.
On April 21, the Dalai Lama attended the Global Buddhist Summit in New Delhi, India. Participants from nearly 30 countries participated in the summit, but China refused the invitation. The Prime Minister of India attended as chief guest for the first day of the two-day congregation, while H.H. the Dalai Lama attended as chief guest for the second day. China hosted their own international Buddhist gathering known as World Buddhist Forum in 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 but failed because the most prominent Buddhist figure, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was not invited. Since then, Buddhism has been stretched thin in cultural politics between India and China and China’s hegemony over religious freedom.
On April 26, H.H. the Dalai Lama was presented with Ramon Magsaysay Award personally after 64 years.
Looking at this chain of events, any person with the slightest notion of Tibet’s geo-political issue will see through the truth of who is behind the viral video and why they chose the timing of sending out the edited video so late from the actual event. Who is the biggest beneficiary of discrediting the legacy of H.H. the Dalai Lama?
Watching those youtube videos/podcasts and hearing the narratives on social media is sickening to the core of my being. It forces me to wonder about essential human intelligence. Forget the cultural context or the geo-political issues. These people not just cheaply judge the character of an internationally revered figure but so brazenly criminalize him for child abuse. I wonder if they even hear their own words; they talk about the child being traumatized but fail to see the child’s mother on the stage, sitting a person away from H.H. the Dalai Lama. The child’s mother is a Dr. with a Harvard University degree. Have they known it? YouTube is now flooded with original video clips and explanations of cultural context and geo-political nature. Did any of them even check the fact and thought of a corrective video?
It’s an unfortunate truth of the smart age. We are constantly fed with the information that they deem fit for us. Yet we live in the delusional smart age, with the imagery of freedom of thought, judging every old custom and cultural norm.
The News media flashed their headlines with “Dalai Lama Apologize for Suck my tongue.” They sold almost every possible commercial through television and their social media channel with just one headline. And incredibly, people quickly bought their catchphrase as reality. They started to question why he apologized. In Buddhism, apologizing is a way of Bodhisattva, meaning; “Even if others should declare before the world all manner of unpleasant things about me, to speak only of their qualities in return, with a mind that’s filled with love—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.” To take upon oneself the defeat and offer victory to others. His Holiness the Dalai Lama apologized to everyone if his word may have caused hurt. He has no intention to hurt a single person. Then why create such hype for an apology? To look at this from a common-sense perspective, it is one of the basic human instincts for reconciliation of any conflict.
In all those derogative videos and comments, no smart person in this digital age has questioned the source of maliciously edited video. A fake Twitter account was identified as the source of the viral video. The account was created in February 2023, and a mere 2-month-old account manages to send out a video with over 3 million views in 3 days. No tach-savvy netizen is surprised. No YouTube/podcast video raise question about the forces behind such accounts. Most surprisingly, we all talk about cyber warfare, but when it comes to peaceful religion and its leader, there is a subtle difference between news and entertainment. Doesn’t it sound more hypocritical and pretentious world?
Black Necked Crane 