Dharamshala: In light of unfounded and fabricated reports linking His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Jeffrey Epstein—reports largely disseminated with vested interests by Chinese state-backed media outlets—the Crisis Management Committee of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), in consultation with the Kashag (Cabinet), conducted a thorough scrutiny of the documents recently released by the United States Department of Justice.
Following an exhaustive review, including a comprehensive technical and contextual analysis of the Epstein documents by the Tibetan Computer Resources Centre (TCRC) applying rigorous methodological standards, the Committee unequivocally established the absence of any direct participation, confirmation, or acknowledgement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or by anyone acting on his behalf, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.
In late January, the U.S. Department of Justice released approximately 3.5 million responsive pages in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Shortly thereafter, Chinese state-affiliated media outlets, including China Tibet Online, ThePaper.cn, CGTN and etc, initiated coordinated smear campaigns against His Holiness, attempting to weaponise the “Epstein Files” to tarnish his exemplary and globally respected reputation.
In response, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama issued a press statement on 8 February, stating, “Some recent media reports and social media posts concerning the “Epstein Files” are attempting to link His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Jeffrey Epstein. We can unequivocally confirm that His Holiness has never met Jeffrey Epstein or authorised any meeting or interaction with him by anyone on His Holiness’s behalf.”
TCRC’s analysis based on the documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice concludes that while the name “Dalai Lama” appears 154 times and “Dali Lama” appears 59 times, these are primarily document duplications. Upon filtering for unique instances, “Dalai Lama” and “Dalai” appear only 59 times and “Dali Lama” 9 times.
The analysis was conducted in multiple stages to ensure accuracy and reproducibility, including document acquisition, text extraction and normalisation, keyword pattern matching, contextual window analysis, deduplication and clustering, and categorisation.
The Committee determined that all references to His Holiness the Dalai Lama are strictly third-party mentions, often informal, speculative, or contextual, and do not establish any interaction, relationship, or communication between His Holiness and Jeffrey Epstein.
Accordingly, the CTA concludes that, based on a thorough analysis of the Department of Justice–released documents, any claim suggesting a meeting, relationship, or correspondence between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Epstein is entirely unfounded and constitutes misinformation and disinformation.
Regrettably, certain media outlets outside China published reports based on unverified and false information. In response, the CTA’s Political Secretary Tashi Gyatso formally wrote to the Editor of The Financial Express, an Indian English-language business newspaper, regarding an article published on 2 February 2026 titled “The Dalai Lama met with Jeffrey Epstein in 2012, was named 169 times in new emails.”
In its letter, the CTA stated, “These ‘mentions’ do not reflect or confirm any meeting with Jeffrey Epstein or a donation, either solicited or received at any stage from him. Furthermore, email correspondence in the “Epstein Files” so far released by the U.S. Department of Justice, particularly from 2015 to 2017, only reflects communications between Jeffrey Epstein and his associates over soliciting a meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. These emails, specifically the email dated May 10, 2015, clearly refute the claim made by Michael Wolff that His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with Jeffrey Epstein in 2012. The content of the said email shows the desperate attempt being made by Epstein to arrange a meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as late as 2015. Thus, it is evidently clear that His Holiness did not meet with Jeffrey Epstein in 2012 or at any other time.”
Given the falsified nature of these claims, no reputable international news organisations—particularly within the United States—have published coverage supporting this misleading narrative.
Similarly, no such alleged meeting appears on the official website of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which has publicly documented and disclosed every meeting and engagement of His Holiness from 1959 to the present.
At a time when information is increasingly susceptible to manipulation, the CTA calls upon independent media organisations to exercise rigorous due diligence in their research and reporting, so as not to become a weapon in the hands of groups with vested interest engaged in perpetuating disinformation and baseless allegations.
