Following the release of over 3.5 million pages from the Jeffrey Epstein investigative archive by the U.S. Department of Justice on January 30, 2026, social media has seen a surge in claims regarding the 14th Dalai Lama’s alleged ties to the late sex offender. These allegations, which vary from eyewitness accounts to mentions in private email servers, have been meticulously cross-referenced against the official “Epstein Library” database. The following is a comprehensive fact-check and chronological debunking of these mentions as of February 2026.
The most widely circulated claim involves a 2025 podcast interview featuring author Michael Wolff, who stated he personally encountered the Dalai Lama at Epstein’s Manhattan residence during one of Epstein’s intellectual “salons.” Wolff hypothesised that high-profile figures like the Tibetan leader likely visited to secure philanthropic funding, noting that Epstein’s source of wealth remained a “central mystery” to those seeking his support. While this statement remains a primary source for the “Dalai Lama at the townhouse” narrative, it is critical to note that the exhaustive DOJ release of early 2026, which included grand jury transcripts and thousands of personal photographs seized from the premises, has yielded no photographic or physical evidence to corroborate this sighting. Furthermore, the Dalai Lama’s name is conspicuously absent from the complete set of flight manifests for Epstein’s private aircraft, commonly referred to as the “Lolita Express.”
Detailed analysis of the 169 mentions of the “Dalai Lama” within Epstein’s digital files reveals a pattern of aspirational targeting rather than mutual collaboration. An email dated October 21, 2012, shows Epstein claiming to a contact that he was attending an event on an “unnamed island” where the Dalai Lama was also expected. However, investigative timelines confirm the Dalai Lama was at a public teaching engagement in the United States at that time, and no evidence exists that he ever traveled to Little St. James. More telling are emails from May 2015, where Epstein writes, “I’m working on the Dalai Lama for dinner,” and an associate suggests that an intermediary at the MIT Media Lab could “get us the Dalai Lama.” These exchanges characterise a one-sided pursuit by Epstein to use the spiritual leader’s prestige to legitimise his own standing in elite circles, a tactic common among his attempts to influence academic and religious leaders.
A recurring point of online confusion involves the Dalai Lama’s 2009 visit to Albany, New York, which is frequently conflated with Epstein in current social media discourse. This event was actually sponsored by the World Ethical Foundations Consortium, an organisation linked to Keith Raniere and the NXIVM cult. While the 2026 Epstein files briefly reference this incident as an example of “status hunting” by controversial figures, the connection to Epstein is factually nonexistent. Historical records from 2017 confirm that the Dalai Lama’s office suspended his personal emissary, Tenzin Dhonden, following allegations of corruption and for his role in organising such high-profile events for questionable donors. The suspension of Dhonden, who acted as a gatekeeper, serves as a significant piece of internal evidence that the Dalai Lama’s administration took action against the very intermediaries Epstein was attempting to manipulate in 2015.
The Department of Justice and the International Buddhist Confederation have both issued statements following the 2026 document release, emphasising that being mentioned in the archive is not an indication of misconduct. The consensus among archival researchers is that the Dalai Lama’s name appears primarily in archived news summaries and “target lists” compiled by Epstein’s staff. These lists were designed to identify world leaders and philanthropists for potential outreach. In the case of the Dalai Lama, the “Epstein Library” reveals a persistent but ultimately unsuccessful attempt by a convicted felon to manufacture a relationship with one of the world’s most visible moral authorities. Consequently, all claims of the Dalai Lama’s active involvement in Epstein’s personal or criminal life are officially classified as debunked, based on a total lack of corroborating evidence in the primary source material.
