Dalai Lama mentioned dozens of times in Epstein files

The Dalai Lama is referenced more than 150 times in the latest tranche of documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by the US Justice Department.

A cursory search of Epstein files on the US Department of Justice website shows 157 mentions of the Tibetan Buddhist leader.

In an Oct. 21, 2012 email, Epstein is telling a contact via email that he was going to attend an event on an unnamed island, which the Dalai Lama would attend.

"Yes. First step would be to meet Tenzin. His student who runs the Dalai Lama center and is now a Director's Fellow at the Lab and going to start the 'ethics initiative' at the Media Lab. We're working on some cool things like a meeting about cognitive machines and man. I think you'll probably like him. He can get us the Dalai Lama," reads another email sent to Epstein on May 10, 2015.

In another email the following day, Epstein writes: "I'm working on the dalai lama for dinner."

The Dalai Lama's office has not publicly commented on the references in the newly released documents.

American journalist and consultant Michael Wolff, who had acted as an advisor to Epstein, recalled in a podcast with host Joanna Coles for the Daily Beat last July that he met the Dalai Lama at Epstein's Manhattan residence.

"Did you actually meet the Dalai Lama Epstein's?" asked Coles.

"Yeah, indeed," Wolff responded, adding that Epstein met many known figures at that house.

Born Tenzin Gyatso, the 90-year-old Dalai Lama, was announced as a Grammy winner on Sunday for his audiobook Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

The Buddhist leader has also been linked to past controversies, including an incident in 2023 in which he was filmed asking one of his young male students to "suck my tongue," prompting widespread public backlash.

China took control of Tibet in 1951, describing the move as a "peaceful liberation." Following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala in northern India, where he later established a Tibetan parliament and government-in-exile.

Beijing does not recognize this administration, asserting that Tibet has been part of China since the 13th century. The Dalai Lama, however, maintains that Tibet was an independent state at the time the Chinese People's Liberation Army entered the region.

The US Justice Department recently released more than 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images related to Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The materials include photographs, grand jury transcripts, and investigative records, though many pages remain heavily redacted.

Epstein was found dead by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.