An Identity Prescribed & Non-Negotiable: The Childhood of Tibetan Tulkus

Abstract

A lama is a spiritual leader or guider of the dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. When a lama dies their spirit is said to move into the body of an infant born shortly after their death, and this child is called a tulku. The word tulku translates to the Sanskrit word nirmanakaya. This means "pure physical body," and is in reference to a fully enlightened being. In the following essay, I engage in a discussion about the childhood experiences and notions of individuality of Tibetan tulkus. Due to the shortage of academic material on this topic, I draw on personal written accounts of specific tulkus and from these make my own inferences and conclusions. By exploring notions of discipline, familial relationships, personal autonomy, identity, and exploitation, I argue that the recognition and identification as a tulku does not allow one to experience an ordinary childhood and deprives one of pursuing a normative or undisturbed upbringing. In this essay, I utilize the term ‘normative’ to mean any version or rendition of childhood that the child would have experienced had they not been identified as a tulku. I hope my findings will be useful in further discussions about whether a child’s putative identity changes their right to access a typical childhood characterized by family, leisure, and personal exploration, or whether their tulku status overrides and reconditions this right.