"It was because of carelessness of some of his attendants. Actually, the purpose of money was charity," the spiritual and temporal head of Tibetan Buddhists told a gathering in Panaji dismissing the controversy as "not serious".
Addressing a lecture in the memory of Buddhist scholar D D Kosambi, the Dalai Lama likened the relations between India and Tibet to that of a teacher and disciple. "India is like the guru and Tibet its disciple," he said.
"Our relation with India is not just few decades old, but it has existed for few thousand years," he said, describing the Indian and Tibetan civilisations as two branches of the sacred Bodhi tree.
"Six million Tibetans are physically controlled by China but 99 per cent of their minds look at India," he said.