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Paper short abstract

This paper studies how Tibetan Buddhist death rituals in Darjeeling are mediated through social media. Using the concept of bardo it shows how online mourning and digital memorials extend liminality reshape ritual authority and sustain spiritual presence and collective grief in digital spaces

Paper long abstract

This study examines the intersection of emergent thanatechnologies and Tibetan Buddhist death rituals with a focus on how social media platforms mediate grief spiritual presence and communal mourning among Tibetan Buddhist communities in Darjeeling India. Drawing on the Tibetan Buddhist concept of bardo a liminal state between death and rebirth the study explores how digital media extend and sustain this transitional phase proposed as digital bardo.

Building on Van Gennep’s rites of passage the paper shows how platforms such as Facebook Instagram YouTube and Reddit prolong liminality through livestreamed prayers recorded chants interactive memorial posts algorithmic reminders and online ritual services. These practices create new forms of spiritual intimacy and collective participation while also generating tensions around ritual authority authenticity and doctrinal legitimacy. The study is guided by three research questions. How do social media technologies and AI mediate grief and Tibetan Buddhist death rituals. What tensions arise between monastic doctrine and algorithm driven ritual practices. How does the digital bardo expand or confine religious death rituals in online spaces.

Based on netnographic fieldwork in Darjeeling a plural religious setting shaped by Tibetan migration and ritual adaptation the paper draws on examples including livestreamed recitations of the Bardo Thodol during the final moments of death daughters continuing devotional communication with deceased parents on Instagram and the use of phrases such as Rest in Peace within Buddhist condolence posts. These cases demonstrate how technology becomes a vessel of care extending sacred presence across distance rather than rupturing ritual tradition.