His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is a world leader, a Nobel Peace prize-winner, and also a sexist man?
The leader of the Tibet government in exile said in a video interview with the BBC published Tuesday that the next Dalai Lama, should they be female, "must be very attractive," as one Jezebel reporter first noticed.
In the interview, the Dalai Lama discussed the refugee crisis and Europe's response to refugees. He called on European governments to not reject refugees simply because they are Muslim. All was going according to script until the BBC journalist, Clive Myrie, asked the Dalai Lama about his future successor.
"Could it be a woman?" the BBC reporter asked.
"Yes," the Dalai Lama said.
"If female Dalai Lama come, then that female must be very attractive, otherwise not much use," Dalai Lama said.
"You're joking," Clive Myrie responds.
The Dalai Lama then points to his own face, and starts to say "Some people, my face..."
"Oh you're not joking?" Myrie said.
"No, true!" the Buddhist leader said.
While it's not 100% clear if the Dalai Lama was joking or being entirely serious, given his stature and his tireless advocacy work, this may have just been the case of a miscommunication in the interview, as the Dalai Lama is not a fluent English speaker.
The question about a female Dalai Lama had been posed many years ago by a reporter in Paris, he said. And referring to the interview, the Dalai Lama said to Myrie, "and then I told that reporter, if [a] female Dalai Lama come[s], their face should be very attractive.”
This week's comment mirrors a comment he made to The Sunday Times in May, where he said if he was reincarnated as a woman, “then her face must be very attractive” or “nobody pay much attention.”
The comment, read from this light, is then a joke criticizing the existing state of inequality that women face rather than a sexist remark.
That context hasn't necessarily stemmed the outrage over his statements from the interview.
Advise for women from the @DalaiLama "Female leaders must be attractive, otherwise not much use" http://t.co/zzdsub2Cix Simply disgusting — Florencia Lujani (@FlorLujani) September 23, 2015
Dalai Lama says a female Dalai Lama is 'not much use' unless she's attractive. You know what else is not much use in a Dalai Lama? Sexism.— Mark Campbell (@MrWordsWorth) September 23, 2015
Breaking news, 80-year-old man has not-very-progressive views about women http://t.co/QSSYO7fRKq— Jonathan Ore (@Jon_Ore) September 22, 2015
However, it should be noted that the Dalai Lama has also given previous comments about women being more compassionate, which have also drawn public consternation.
The Dalai Lama said that he would be pleased if he had a female successor because women are more "sensitive" and be more compassionate in a 2013 interview with the British broadcast company, Channel4 News.