Lady Gaga has been banned from China after a meeting with the Dalai Lama, according to a report by The Guardian’s Tom Phillips. In a 19-minute video posted to Gaga’s Facebook page, the Dalai Lama and Gaga spoke about yoga, meditation, mental health and how to detoxify humanity in a conference in Indianapolis on Sunday.
After their meeting, Phillips reported the Chinese Communist party banned Gaga from the Chinese mainland, per the pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily. Additionally, Chinese media organizations were told to stop uploading and distributing her music. Party-controlled outlets, such as United States broadcasting station CCTV, were ordered to condemn the meeting between the two.
This isn’t the first time a musician has had his or her Chinese population isolated because of involvement with His Holiness. According to a report by BBC.com’s Kerry Allen, Selena Gomez cancelled her August 2016 tour in April supposedly because of photos with the Dalai Lama that she shared. Bon Jovi also cancelled concerts for September after they had featured His Holiness in some of their gigs.
The main issue China has with the Dalai Lama is that they believe him to be conspiring to split the Himalayan region from China in order to establish a theocratic rule, per Phillips. The Dalai Lama insists, however, that he is merely seeking more autonomy from Chinese governance for Tibetans.
Gaga’s camp has yet to respond.
