Many users of the popular microblogging site Twitter were surprised over the weekend when an account purporting to belong to His Holiness the Dalai Lama popped up on the social website. In just two days over 20,000 users began following “His Holiness” and the Twitter account purporting to be his returned the gesture by following them. The apparent jump into web 2.0 by the Dalai Lama even sparked an AFP  news article. Then, suddenly, the account disappeared. What happened?

As you may have guessed by now, the account was that of an imposter. A spokesman for Twitter says that the real OHHDL contacted her today. Neither the Dalai Lama or his office was ever on Twitter. The LA Times:

They bragged about it to friends, talked about spirituality and cracked jokes (“Can enlightenment be reached 140 char at a time?”). Agence-France Presse even banged out a news story about the Dalai Lama joining Twitter. By Sunday night, he (or is it He?) had attracted 13,000 new followers, an impressive number even for a guy who spiritually represents the whole Tibetan people.

But today, as Mondays are wont to do, brought disappointment and disillusionment. Turns out the person twittering from the Dalai Lama’s account, @OHHDL, was an imposter.

“Everyone who’s wondering why @ohhdl was suspended. The official ohhdl in Dharamsala, India, informed us that @ohhdl is an impersonator. Sorry,” wrote Caroline, a Twitter spokeswoman. The San Francisco company had been contacted by the real Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to break the news that the enlightened Twitterer was not, in fact, the Enlightened Twitterer.

He might just have better things to do than spurt out 140-character or less messages to the web several times a day.