A visual composition showing an image of Jeffrey Epstein next to an image of the Dalai Lama. Photo: MintPress News.
By Alan MacLeod – Feb 20, 2026
The latest tranche of Epstein files has put a rather unlikely figure in the spotlight: the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan religious leader’s name is mentioned hundreds of times in the newly-released documents, with suggestions and allegations that the two maintained some kind of personal relationship. A search for “Dalai Lama” elicits 156 results on the Department of Justice’s website, with other similar queries, such as “Dali Lama” (Epstein had notoriously poor spelling) also prompting dozens of relevant results. A prominent Epstein guest recalls meeting the Buddhist teacher at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, scene of many of his most serious sex crimes. The Dalai Lama’s office has vehemently denied any connection to the disgraced pedophile and suspected Israeli intelligence operative.
Partying at Epstein’s house?
A serial networker, Epstein’s emails show that he worked hard to connect with the Dalai Lama, sending requests out to his web of contacts for an invitation. Joichi Ito, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, helped him in his endeavors, noting that his close contact, Tenzin Priyadarshi was a Tibetan monk, MIT’s Buddhist chaplain, and had a direct line to the Dalai Lama. As he wrote:
“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.”
Epstein would go on to meet with Priyadarshi and donate $50,000 to the Prajnopaya Institute, a Buddhist Center he founded. In 2019, Ito resigned in disgrace over his association with Epstein.
Epstein was excited by the prospect of reeling the lama into his personal network. “I’m working on the dalai lama for dinner” he emailed Soon Yi-Previn, wife of Woody Allen. “Any date for the lunch with Woody and dalai L?” celebrity scientist Lawrence Krauss asked Epstein two weeks later.
Another message from a redacted sender also hints at a closer relationship than previously known: “Sorry for that didn’t check my email since yesterday morning. You know that I don’t have an Internet in my phone, why didn’t you call me or text me on my phone if you need me? About the event I told you almost a month ago on the island that Dalai Lama is coming and I want to go there to see him. But I can skip this event if you need my help today.”
It is not clear whether the reference to the “island” is Little St. James, the infamous Caribbean retreat where the billionaire trafficked and raped girls and women.
From the emails alone, it is unclear whether Epstein and the Dalai Lama ever met in person. However, Michael Wolff, journalist and Epstein associate, stated multiple times that he personally saw him at Epstein’s Manhattan residence.
Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Epstein’s gigantic apartment was “filled with people you might want to meet, from Bill Gates, to Peter Thiel, to Larry Summers, Ehud Barak, Steve Bannon, Noam Chomsky, the Dalai Lama.” Host Joanna Coles interrupted Wolff, asking, “You met the Dalai Lama?” “Yeah, the list goes on, the list is extraordinary,” he replied. A shocked Coles asked him once again to clarify: “Did you actually meet the Dalai Lama at Jeffrey Epstein’s?” to which Wolff responded, “Yeah, indeed.”
The Central Tibetan Administration has categorically denied both Wolff’s claims and any deep connections between Epstein and the Dalai Lama. After analyzing the documents themselves, they concluded that they were marked by an “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.”
“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,” they concluded, adding that reports stating otherwise are often the work of “Chinese state-backed media outlets” with “vested interests” against the Tibetan independence movement.
Langley’s favorite religious leader
Nevertheless, the presence of the Dalai Lama in the Epstein files evoke memories of a 2023 incident involving a young boy. At a public event in India, the then-87-year-old leader invited a child on stage, ordering him to kiss him on the cheek. Holding the boy in place, he motions to his lips, saying “I think here also.” Cupping the boy’s chin, he kisses him on the mouth, as the audience applauds. Still holding the child, he then orders him to “suck his tongue.” The visibly shaken boy pulls back in disgust.
Weeks afterward, video from the incident went viral. The Dalai Lama was condemned by Indian children’s groups, and widely accused of pedophilia. Facing a media storm, his office put out a short statement apologizing to the boy, his family, and “his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.” “His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident,” the note explained.
While the Dalai Lama has strenuously denied the Epstein and child abuse allegations, he has been completely open about his connections to the CIA and U.S. intelligence, groups with whom Epstein is alleged to have had close relations. For decades, the Dalai Lama was on the CIA payroll, personally receiving $180,000 per year from the agency, as part of a wider US strategy to support the Tibetan separatist movement against Communist China.
After a failed 1959 uprising, he left Tibet for India, never to return. The CIA continued to support Tibetan guerillas, however, arming, training and funding hundreds of fighters at Camp Hale in Colorado, in an attempt to destabilize the government. But after the Nixon administration’s détente with China in the early 1970s, Tibetan independence was placed on the back burner, and the CIA money for the program, including the Dalai Lama’s personal stipend, dried up. “Once the American policy toward China changed, they [the CIA] stopped their help. Otherwise, our struggle could have gone on,” the Dalai Lama said of the decision.
The CIA continues to fund Tibetan movements through front organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Every year, the NED spends millions bankrolling programs targeting Tibet, supporting media, NGOs, and other Tibetan groups who oppose the Chinese government. There are currently at least 16 active Tibetan NED projects, although the organization does not disclose who are the recipients of their largesse, for fear it would reduce their credibility. Nevertheless, NGOs such as the Tibet Justice Center and the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy are known to be financed by Washington. As are Students for a Free Tibet and media such as the China Digital Times and China Change.
The purpose of these operations, one declassified State Department document notes, is “to keep the political concept of an autonomous Tibet alive within Tibet and among foreign nations, principally India, and to build a capability for resistance against possible political developments inside Communist China.”
Bad karma
The release of the Epstein files has made waves across the world, as celebrities, scientists, politicians, and royals have been implicated in a vast network of trafficking and sexual abuse. In the United Kingdom, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) was arrested, while the house of ex-cabinet member, Lord Mandelson, was raided by the police. Meanwhile, in Norway, former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been charged with aggravated corruption relating to his dealings with the disgraced New York financier.
In the United States, however, not a single individual has faced legal consequences for their actions. Moreover, the Department of Justice announced that the January 30 release of 3 million pages of documents would be its last, as it had met its legal obligations. This, despite only 2% of the total Epstein files it holds having been published (and many heavily redacted, at that).
Why Epstein wished to meet the Dalai Lama so much is unclear. The billionaire appeared to enjoy “collecting” well-known figures. The Dalai Lama himself is remaining tight-lipped. And with Epstein dead and no more files scheduled to be released, it is likely that we may never hear the final word on this mystery.
Alan MacLeod
Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group and a Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
