Tukdam, Different Ontological Bodies, and Making Tibetan Deaths Visible

Summary

Tukdam, a postmortem state recently recognized by science, remains unexplained in biomedical terms. This article argues that tukdam represents a distinct Indo-Tibetan death, best understood through an ontological approach that collapses epistemology and ontology, where different ways of perceiving the body produce different forms of being. Drawing on Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan appropriations, science studies, and medical anthropology, the author contends that tantric Buddhist bodies and deaths are largely incommensurable with and invisible to the modern medical gaze and its Euroamerican documentary film conventions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Unknown to science until recently, the postmortem state of tukdam has not yet been adequately explained in biomedical terms. One way to understand this phenomenon is through ideas of different cultural bodies and death processes, where tukdam emerges as a particular kind of Indo-Tibetan death. This article draws upon medical anthropological scholarship and literature in history of science and cross-cultural medicine looking at epistemological theories of perception where different ways of conceiving-perceiving and attending to the body contribute toward producing different medical bodies-and deaths. This epistemological approach has entailed the idea of one reality "out there," which I call into question. I argue instead for an ontological approach, where epistemology and ontology are collapsed so that different forms of conceiving-perceiving contribute toward different forms of being. Such an approach seems apt in the case of different cultural bodies and death processes that we encounter with tukdam and other extraordinary Tibetan death displays. I explore Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy and its Tibetan appropriations along with science studies, medical and ontological anthropology to sketch out theory for how ontologically distinct bodies might come about. Tantric Buddhist bodies and deaths emerge as largely incommensurable with, and invisible to, the modern medical gaze with its attendant Euroamerican regime of truth where visibility, quantification, and technological measurability set the grounds for the real. This regime also dominates in the European documentary film world, as I discovered while making a documentary on tukdam.

Tags