It’s the opposite. He’s constantly mocking his appearance. When he refers to himself attractive and then laughs uproariously, it is because the Dalai Lama has not been known for his good looks.

You may be right. The (2015) original interview is way more innocuous than the sensationalist link would indicate. First of all, he answers emphatically in the affirmative that a woman could be a Dalai Lama, and, in fact, states that women may be more naturally suited to this role as they are naturally gifted with…

Eh, for what it’s worth, I don’t think he meant attractive in the sense of, ‘The Dalai Lama needs to be fuckable’. I think he meant attractive in the sense of pleasant or charismatic. A person that draws your attention. I mean, someone like a Pema Chodron is ‘attractive’ in that sense to me, but you wouldn’t exactly…

Yeah; I don’t know. I mean, taken as a whole, that which the Dalai Lama has done over a lifetime has been fairly inspiring. And perhaps most of us do more good than harm on balance. I’d like to think so, anyway.