Abstracts of the Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism and Beyond Panelists

Weirong Shen, Tsinghua University
Bodhisattvas in Saṃsāra: The Avalokiteśvara Cult and the Reincarnation of Tibetan Lamas
The initial formation of the reincarnation system in Tibetan Buddhism was closely connected to the Avalokiteśvara Cult. Most reincarnated lamas are thought to be reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, prime among them being those of the Dalai Lama and the Karma pas. The concept of reincarnation was not based on the Mahayana theory of three bodies of the Buddha (Trikāya), but rather on the ideal of the Bodhisattva; likewise, Sprul sku does not refer to the Nirmāṇakāya of the Buddha, but rather to the incarnation of Bodhisattva. Furthermore, the system of the Union of State and Religion in Tibetan Buddhism was developed using the Avalokiteśvara ideal as a foundation as well. The time has come to remove the political burden from the shoulders of the living Buddhas [Bodhisattvas] and restore unto them the religious significance they once possessed, so as to free all living Buddhas from the Saṃsāra within which they are presently trapped. 

Tengyur Rinpoche, Thubten Shedrubling Foundation
The History of Reincarnated Lamas in Tibet
This talk will explore the history of the trulku (sprulku) system in Tibet, a unique institution within Tibetan Buddhism based on the foundational Buddhist concept of rebirth, closely tied to the Mahayana understanding of enlightened beings manifesting in various forms (kayas). The system led to a rapid increase in the number of recognized trulkus across Tibet and the Himalayan regions, with trulkus appearing not only in state-recognized institutions but also in small monasteries, ladrangs, villages, and towns, creating complex hierarchies. A major challenge has been the absence of a centralized authority to ensure the proper recognition of reincarnations, leading to abuses and interference from previous managers, relatives, and others in the recognition process. The talk will also discuss His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 2011 remarks on retirement, recent informal statements from the Ganden Phodrang Office regarding the selection of the next Dalai Lama, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Ganden Phodrang Office’s stand on who holds the ultimate authority in this critical process."

Tawni Tidwell, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers  for the Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State
In March 2021, the Tukdam Study, guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and scientifically led by neuroscientist Richard Davidson and Center for Healthy Minds since 2013, had its longest case—a senior Buddhist practitioner who remained in the post-death meditative state called tukdam (thugs dam) for 37 days. His body remained supple and radiant with marked resistance to the decomposition process. Both Tibetan medical and biomedical systems rely on indicators from each tradition’s respective ontological paradigms and epistemic diagnostic instruments to guide treatments for alleviating disease and suffering. These same lenses determine specific progressions during the dying process and confirm the final transition to death. Euroamerican biomedical and research communities increasingly rely on biomarkers that index function and dysfunction that, at the time of death, focus on brain stem, heart and lung parameters to demarcate end of life. Tibetan medical physicians and Buddhist adepts, on the other hand, rely on perceptual and inferential markers derived from the pramāṇic tradition, assessing the validity of evidence largely gained through perceptual means, to determine when a consciousness releases from a dying body and how specific markers might indicate nuanced attainments in that state. 

In other contemporary research collaborations with Tibetan medical physicians, Buddhist monastics and biomedical researchers, Euroamerican epistemologies and modes of inquiry have dominated, resulting in relegating traditional modes of inquiry, such as indirect evidence (rjes dpag) and direct perceptual evidence (mgon sum), to largely theoretical bystanders. This paper presents the two longest cases from the collaborative Tukdam Study whereby this state provides a particular ontological frame investigated jointly by the two distinct intellectual traditions—the Tibetan Buddhist and medical tradition on one hand and the Euroamerican biomedical and scientific tradition on the other—using their respective means of inquiry. Through the investigation, the traditions enact two paradigms of the body at the time of death alongside attendant conceptualizations of what constitutes life itself. This paper examines when epistemologies of these two traditions might converge, under what ontological contexts, and through which correlated indicators of evidence. In doing so, this work explores how these two intellectual traditions might answer how the time course and characteristics of physiological changes during the postmortem period might exhibit variation across individuals and in what ways this state probes a biocultural nexus of life suspended in death.

It explores the breadth and diversity of perceptual signs such as radiance (mdangs), heat (drod) and posture (bzhugs stangs) alongside biomarkers such as EEG-measured brain activity, oximetry and microbiotic changes; and posits the possibility for discourse by forging epistemic bridges, even for supramundane signs such as ringsel (ring bsrel) and kü-düng (sku gdungs) relics. This paper applies a biocultural lens to assess how competing epistemologies and ontologies frame the investigative object simultaneously as a dying person, a moment of awakening and a bardo transition state amidst reincarnatory processes from life to death to luminosity. 

Sangseraima Ujeed, University of Michigan
The Ocean Lama: The Dalai Lamas of the Mongols
Throughout history, since the very conception of the title Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama was and remains as much a part of the cultural heritage of the Mongols as he is of the Tibetans. The story of the Dalai Lamas is an amalgamated history that began as a result of complex religio-political collaborations between the Tibetans and the Mongols. When it comes to the origin of the Dalai Lamas, the 1578 meeting between Altan Khan (1507–1582) and Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) is often celebrated as the moment the latter metamorphosized into the Dalai Lama, the first to carry the title. Van der Kuijp asserted that the origin of the Dalai Lama institution is closely connected to the “invention of tradition” and coined the Dalai Lamas as “Altan Khan’s legacy” (Van der Kujip 2013,336). This perspective sets the scene for this paper which investigates origin of the relationship between the Dalai Lamas and the Mongols. Emphasis will be given to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the events that occurred during this period led to the birth of the Dalai Lama lineage and the translocalization of the Gelug school across the Himalayas, Inner Asia, and Qing China. By investigating the symbiotic relationships between the Dalai Lamas and the Mongols, this chapter will tell the Dalai Lama story from the Mongol perspective and will highlight the Mongolian participation in the historical events that led to the creation of the lineage and institution of the Dalai Lamas. 

Nicole Willock, Old Dominion University
Authenticity and Authority: Methodological Pathways for Understanding the Tulku Institution
In this era of information overload what methodological pathways are available to researchers to understand key aspects of the tulku institution? This paper reflects on recent technological shifts in the academic landscape to examine issues of authenticity and authority in the tulku institution within Tibetan Buddhism. By pairing Tibetan-language texts with different analytical lenses—critical theory, digital humanities, and AI ethics, this paper raises questions on how new methodological pathways have opened and closed, and how new shortcuts and pitfalls have emerged with these new technologies.