The Dalai Lama has told broadcaster NOS he was aware of reports about sexual abuse by Buddhist teachers as far back as the 1990s. NOS posed the question at the official opening of a new exhibition about Buddhism at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.

Asked by the broadcaster what he had learned from his meeting with four abuse victims in the Netherlands on Friday, the Dalai Lama said: ‘I knew these things, they are not new’.

‘Twenty-five years ago… someone mentioned about a problem of sexual allegations’ at a conference for western Buddhist teachers in Dharamshala, news agency AFP quoted him as saying.

The four victims who met the Dalai Lama on Friday told reporters afterwards he had pledged to bring up their cases at a meeting of Buddhist teachers in November.

During the Tibetan spiritual leader’s weekend visit to the Netherlands he also held a question and answer session with American actor Richard Gere, who is chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, at the Ahoy exhibition centre in Rotterdam.