DALAI DRAMA
THE Dalai Lama has been criticised for joking that a female successor would have to be attractive a day after saying that Europe would become Muslim if refugees didn’t leave.
The 83-year-old was speaking at his home in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where he has lived since fleeing Tibet in 1959.
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In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, he reiterated comments made three years ago, when he said that he was open to a female successor but that she "must be attractive, otherwise it's not much use".
Asked whether he could see why a lot of women found the original comments upsetting, he laughed and said: "That is one time.
"If female Dalai Lama comes, then she should be more attractive."
Contorting his face, he added: “If a female Dalai Lama, I think, [people would] prefer not to see her — that face.”
He then agreed with interviewer Rajini Vaidyanathan that character is also important.
The Dalai Lama already sparked controversy yesterday by saying in the same interview that Europe would become Muslim if refugees didn't eventually leave.
"European countries should take these refugees and give them education and training," he said.
"And then aiming is... return to their own land".
Asked whether refugees should be allowed to stay in Europe if that's what they would prefer, he added: "Limited number... OK. But whole Europe eventually become Muslim country? Impossible.
"Or African country? Also impossible."
He had previously made similar comments that were used in posters by the Leave campaign in the run up to Britain's referendum on its membership of the Europe Union.
Reminded that he was himself a refugee, the Dalai Lama responded: "They themselves [the refugees], I think better in their own land.
"Better. Keep Europe for Europeans."
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 in the wake of a failed uprising by guerrillas opposed to control of Tibet by China, which had been in force since 1951.
He has lived in India ever since.
Beginning in 2015, a large number of asylum seekers and economic migrants began arriving in Europe from the Middle East and Africa, sparking fierce debate about how many should be allowed to stay.
TRUMP 'LACKS MORAL PRINCIPLE'
The Dalai Lama also said in the interview that he was an "admirer of [the] spirit" of the EU, and that he thought it would be better for Britain to remain in the union.
He went on to say he thought Donald Trump, who has campaigned on a platform of reducing the number of migrants and refugees coming to the US, had a "lack of moral principle", and that the president's America First platform was "wrong".
"America, they should take the global responsibility," he said.
The Noble Peace Prize winner also said in the interview that he backed women’s rights and calls for equal pay in the workplace.
Recent years have seen women around the world come forward with thousands of allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace and elsewhere.
President Trump was among those to face accusations amid what came to be known as the Me Too campaign.
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But responding to his comments, Vivienne Hayes of the Women’s Resource Centre campaign group said: “It’s disappointing any woman’s ability to take on a leadership role should be determined by her appearance.
“We are concerned society is in fact going backwards in terms of women’s equality, and will keep tirelessly campaigning against this.”
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