A one-day mini-conference over Zoom bringing together scholars from multiple fields to consider the porous nature of death in Tibetan traditions
Co-hosted by the ISM and the Council on East Asian Studies, MacMillan Center
R E G I S T E R H E R E (by the start of the event)
What is death? How do reincarnation and the transmigration of consciousness complicate our understanding of death? What role does the body play in the process of death? How have various traditions understood the post-death experience? How are death and life inextricably linked? Using textual analysis, historical excavation and ethnographic inquiry, scholars will present research considering the ways in which death and rebirth are parts of a complex continuity. Rather than thinking of death as a permanent state, a one-way border, this conference seeks to examine the ways in which death is a tactical concept, with ever-changing boundaries and definitions.
Schedule
9–10:30 am | Session I
Introductory Remarks and Welcome
Kati Fitzgerald, Yale University
Death or No Death: The Ambiguity of the Deloms in Bhutan
Françoise Pommaret, National Centre for Scientific Research & Royal University of Bhutan
Perception towards Death, Dying with Dignity, Preference of End-of-life care and Medical Aid in Dying among Asian Buddhists Living in Montreal, Canada
Nidup Dorji, Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan
When the Death Process Reverses: At What Point Are the Dead Truly Dead?
Alyson Prude, Georgia Southern University
Memories of Birth, Echoes of Death: The Entwining of Life and Loss in Mustang Women’s Reproductive Histories
Sienna R. Craig, Dartmouth College
10:45 am–12:15 pm | Session II
Death as Moral-Heuristic Ground: Paradigms of Generating Resilience and Cultivating Compassion among Tibetan Buddhist Practitioners in South India
Tenzin Namdul, University of Minnesota
Evoking Death and the Dead in Tibetan Secular Songs: Teachings, Devotion, Commemoration
Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy, Laval University
Coping with (Un)timely Deaths and Extending One’s Life Span: Reflections on Ethnographic Research among Tibetans in Darjeeling, India
Barbara Gerke, University of Vienna
What is the Lifespan of a Tibetan Incarnation?
Gray Tuttle, Columbia University
Buddhism and Organ Donation: The (Dead) Body Multiple
Tanya Zivkovic, University of Adelaide
LUNCH BREAK
2–3 pm | Keynote Address
Mystery, Meaning, and Nature of Death: A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective
Dr. Thupten Jinpa, McGill University
3:30–5 pm | Session III
The ‘Das Log: Revenant Experience in the Khandro Chodzo Chenmo
Padma ‘tsho (Baimacuo) , Southwest University for Nationalities
The Miracle of Yama’s Little Helpers: Problems and Practices of Bodiless Transference in the Kalacakra Tantra
Michael Sheehy, University of Virginia
Modes of Liberation in Tibetan Buddhist Death Practices: Purificatory, Didactic, and Yogic Approaches
Rory Lindsay, University of Toronto
Ontological Realities and the Biocultural Nexus of Life in Suspension with Death: Perceptual Cues and Biomarker Diagnostics for the Tukdam State
Tawni Tidwell, Ph.D., M.D., Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Speaker Bios & Abstracts (link)
PDF kindly provided by ISM Fellow Kati Fitzgerald