Irish director Donagh Coleman and Wildfire Films explore the extraordinary phenomenon of Tukdam, whereby some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners are able to forestall physical decay at the point of clinical death for days, even weeks, by entering a deep meditative state. Supported by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who appears in this film, a group of leading scientists conduct groundbreaking research into the phenomenon, which challenges Western medical understanding of the line between life and death.
This feature documentary explores a phenomenon that blurs life and death to an unprecedented degree. In what Tibetan Buddhists call ‘tukdam’, advanced meditators die in a consciously controlled manner. Though dead according to our biomedical standards, they often stay sitting upright in meditation; remarkably, their bodies remain fresh and lifelike, without signs of decay for days, sometimes weeks after clinical death. Following ground-breaking scientific research into tukdam and taking us into intimate death stories of Tibetan meditators, the film juxtaposes scientific and Tibetan perspectives as it tries to unravel the mystery of ‘tukdam’.