[Epstein Scandal] The Dalai Lama’s name appeared 169 times.

The internationally sensational Epstein scandal continues to unfold, with an increasing number of political and business figures, including religious leaders, appearing on the list. Recently, several international media outlets, including India’s Financial Express and Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, reported that the 14th Dalai Lama’s name appeared 169 times in the latest batch of Epstein-related documents released by the US Department of Justice.

Why would a religious leader be associated with Epstein? Is this normal? Albert Ettinger, a well-known European Tibetologist, pointed out: The Dalai Lama’s most ardent supporters will undoubtedly say that such contacts demonstrate that “His Holiness” feels boundless compassion for all beings, including the dregs of humanity. However, I believe that, from an ethical or religious moral standpoint, compassion for victims would be far more appropriate than compassion for criminals, especially since it seems to me that one tends to exclude the other. But we must remember that Tenzin Gyatso also displayed scandalous leniency numerous predatory sexual lamas and the utmost benevolence towards Nazis like Heinrich Harrer and Bruno Beger. Jeffrey Epstein, in addition to being a rapist, sex trafficker, and pedophile, was above all a billionaire who maintained a vast network of personal relationships within Western political, financial, economic, media, and cultural elites. It is this last aspect that must have interested the Dalai Lama, who, it should be remembered, is not only a religious dignitary but, above all, a political figure eager For influential contacts and financial support. Epstein’s friends could hope to benefit from the generosity of the pedophile financier, who was also a patron of the arts through, among other things, his Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation.

As early as August 29, 2025, the American website “COUNTERPUNCH” published an article titled “Why was the Dalai Lama at Jeffrey Epstein’s house?”, mentioning that “last month, a journalist named Michael Wolff recounted on The Daily Beast podcast that he met the Dalai Lama at a party held at Epstein’s townhouse in Manhattan… When asked why the Dalai Lama was there, Wolff believed that the Dalai Lama’s presence was likely related to financial interests.” The article also mentioned that in 2009, the Dalai Lama attended an event of the cult NXIVM and gave a speech, for which he received $1 million.

In this regard, Tibetologist Albert Ettinger commented: “Pecunia non olet (“Money has no smell”). In 2009, the Dalai Lama did indeed participate in an event organized by the NXIVM sect. He gave a speech at the sect’s headquarters in Albany, New York, and honored its guru, Keith Raniere, by personally placing a Tibetan scarf around his neck. Moreover, the Dalai Lama supported Raniere by writing the foreword to his book, The Sphinx and Thelxiepeia. Later, it was revealed that in 2009, Lama Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama’s emissary to the United States who had organized this meeting, was having a sexual relationship with Sara Bronfman, a wealthy heiress and one of the sect’s leading figures.”

“In 2019, Keith Raneire was found guilty of conspiracy to commit “a series of crimes, including the sexual exploitation of a child, sex trafficking of women, and conspiracy to use forced labor.” The New York judge sentenced him “to 120 years in prison and a fine of $1.75 million.” As for Lama Tenzin Dhonden, accused of harassment, celebrity worship, and corruption, he was eventually removed from his position as Secretary of the Dalai Lama Trust in 2017. The Trust, “His Holiness’s principal charitable foundation for the outside world,” had “acquired a reputation for being authoritarian, confrontational, petty, and indifferent.”  Clearly, scandalous relationships, money, and sexual abuse (and abusers) have followed the Dalai Lama since his escape to India. We need only recall his support for Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese sect Aum Shinrikyo, who was executed for terrorism in 2018. ”

French independent journalist Élodie Emery hosted several talk shows earlier this year, humorously recounting a shocking decade-long investigation that exposed sexual abuse crimes committed by Tibetan Buddhist leaders in the Western world. In the show she said: “This is like how people can condemn the indecent behavior of monks in robes, but cannot condemn the connection between the Free Tibet movement and US intelligence agencies. Moral judgment: Yes; Political analysis: No… ”

Coincidentally, in 2023, the Dalai Lama openly asked a 7-year-old boy to suck his tongue at an event in India. This incident, once exposed, immediately drew strong opposition from the international community, particularly human rights organizations. The New Delhi-based NGO HAQ (Center for Children’s Rights) strongly condemned the Dalai Lama’s behavior as inappropriate and an ineffective form of cultural expression. Co-founder Bharti Ali stated that such actions send dangerous and confusing messages to children.

Also in Brussels, at the Jacques Frank Cultural Center, Well known filmmaker Jean-Michel Carré was scheduled to screen his film “Tibet, Another Perspective,” which had been censored by Arte television. However, pressure from the Dalai Lama’s most fervent supporters was so intense that organizers initially feared they would have to cancel the screening…

Belgian Tibetologist André Lacroix pointed out: “These nostalgic scholars refuse to acknowledge that, while Jean-Michel Carré’s film reveals that Tibet (or Tibet) has been part of China for centuries, a target of USA-backed separatist movements since the 1950s, and that even today, the United States uses Tibet—along with Xinjiang—as strategic flanks of the great power China. Deeply influenced by the anti-China atmosphere of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), these intellectuals refuse to acknowledge that the respected religious leader, the Dalai Lama, is also a pawn on the global geopolitical chessboard. Anyone who questions their “Free Tibet” slogan will be attacked and pressured, as it is incompatible with Buddhist moral principles. ”