It is a well-established fact that celebrities use Twitter. Ashton Kutcher is fond of tweeting about Demi Moore. Britney Spears tweets about her babies. And of course, Barack Obama tweeted his way to the presidency.
In a similar high-profile foray into social media, it was just last month, that the Pope, in an effort to connect with a new generation of Catholics, launched his own YouTube channel.
So it was not entirely surprising when reports began circulating this weekend that the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, had launched his own Twitter stream.
The new account, titled @OHHDL (for The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama), was launched Saturday and quickly attracted nearly 20,000 followers.
“Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness the Dalai Lama — administered by The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the first tweet read.
The Dalai Lama, who is famously challenged by the English language, seemed a likely author for subsequent posts. “His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office open and assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience,” read one tweet.
Alas, “one of the essential doctrines of Buddhism is Impermanence,” and it turns out the account was a fake. This was the word from the official Twitter blog, which announced Monday that @OHHDL had been removed.
Apparently the actual Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama got wind of the @OHHDL account and informed Twitter of the imposter. Reports now say that Twitter is working with Dalai Lama’s office to set up an official account. There’s obviously enthusiasm for tweets from His Holiness. With nearly 20,000 followers in 48 hours, @OHHDL was one of the fastest-growing accounts ever.
Even the Twitter team is on board. “Should His Holiness decide to take up Twittering for real,” they wrote, “we’ll be sure to Follow.”
