Paper short abstract:

My paper will show how the Buddhist notion of the Pure Land influenced the end-of-life (and after-life) care of a member from a Vietnamese-Buddhist congregation in East Berlin. Furthermore, I introduce the practice of what I would like to call digital dying and its connection to remote care.

Paper long abstract:

In my talk, I will present some preliminary findings of my still ongoing PhD research. In the last one and a half years, I was first digitally and then via participant observation, mapping a Vietnamese-Buddhist deathscape (Maddrell and Sidaway 2010) in Berlin. The lion's share of my research takes place in a pagoda where every Sunday and for special Buddhist festivals care for the deceased ancestors takes place. By chronicling the recent death of a member from this congregation, I will show how Buddhist notions (i.e. the belief in the rebirth in the Pure Land) shape the individuals' preparation for death as well as the spiritual (care) practices done by the community for the dying and dead. In addition to the introduction of this example of Buddhist care (Watts and Tomatsu 2012), I am going to shed light on the practice of what I would like to call digital dying. The death process of the aforementioned pagoda member was live broadcasted, from her last days to the subsequent funeral, to connect this moment with family in Vietnam or other members of the diaspora community. Furthermore, by sending Buddhist mantras and prayers via chat people could, in a kind of remote care, wish for the deceased to be reborn quickly in the Pure Land.

If feasible till July, I would also like to include the first findings of my training to become a voluntary hospice care worker (beginning in March) in the Vietnam team of an intercultural hospice organization in Berlin.