The Dalai Lama recently spent nine days in the United Kingdom but he was not able to meet with Prince Charles. It was said that the latter was trying to please China so he had to avoid Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
Prince Charles did not want to offend Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is set to make a state visit to the U.K. considering that China sees the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist, sources told Daily Mail.
Prior to this, the Dalai Lama caught the attention of feminists when he confirmed in a seven-minute long interview on Sept. 21 that he once mentioned the possibility of a very attractive woman to succeed to his position.
During an interview with the BBC television journalist Clive Myrie, the Dalai Lama confirmed that years ago, a French female reporter asked him about the possibility of having a female successor.
According to the Dalai Lama, who is a self-declared feminist, he told the French female reporter that a woman Dalai Lama would have biologically more potential to show affection and compassion.
"Today, in a more troubled world, I think females should take more important roles," Tibet's spiritual leader said. He then smiled as he leaned forward to Myrie and said, "And then I told that reporter, if a female Dalai Lama comes, their face should be very attractive."
When Myrie tried to clarify his statements, the Dalai Lama explained, "I mean if female Dalai Lama come, then that female must be very attractive, otherwise not much use."
Myrie then asked the Dalai Lama whether or not if he was joking but the latter said he was not. Surprised, the journalist tried to change the topic by asking Tibet's spiritual leader about his role as "a religious rock star."
In a BBC website article about the interview, the Dalai Lama's remarks were summarized but his remarks on women were excluded considering that it is media organizations' routine practice to highlight public figures' remarks that are considered newsworthy.