Feeling sorry for the demonstrations by pro-Shugden supporters against him, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said they were misinformed, a post on his official website said Friday.
"I feel sorry for these demonstrators because they are misinformed," the elderly Buddhist monk said while addressing members of his community in Vancouver in Canada Thursday.
"For example, in Hamburg they (demonstrators) displayed pictures of me wearing a Muslim skull-cap and said I was a Muslim instead of a Buddhist. I'm not worried, the truth will come out. Some of the demonstrators are Tibetans. I feel sorry for them and don't feel anger towards them," he said.
Clarifying his stand on worshipping the Shugden deity, he said it began at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, who wrote about it in his autobiography, mentioning the harm the spirit was doing.
"The 5th and 13th Dalai Lamas had restricted the practice, but even during the time of the 7th prominent masters had opposed it," he said.
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In this context, the 79-year-old monk, who is the 14th Dalai Lama, said it was a mistake that he took up the practice, but when he saw it was a mistake he stopped.
The present Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese Communist rule in 1959.
On reaching India, he first took up residence for about a year in Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, after which he moved to this Himachal Pradesh town where he continues to live with his followers.
