ABSTRACT

The claim that ‘Buddha was Born in Nepal’ is pervasive in contemporary discourses about Nepali national identity. This article focuses on the ways in which the claim to Buddha’s birthplace is deployed by some Nepalis living beyond Nepal as both a means of maintaining a connection to Nepal as a diasporic homeland and as a means of building their own online celebrity. In particular, I analyse how the claim is communicated online by three Nepali YouTubers (Lex Limbu, James Shrestha, and Sagar Tamang), whose videos embed the claim to Buddha’s birthplace within recognizable genres, memes, and narratives that are part of the Internet’s shared culture. I argue that the makers of these videos are not only reaffirming their own sense of connection to Nepal as their diasporic homeland, but are also building their own personal brands by linking their own reputations as digital microcelebrities with the Buddha’s global name recognition. Through this case study, I aim to theorize how microcelebrity can be a form of practicing citizenship at a distance within the context of a digital diaspora.

摘要

“佛陀诞生于尼泊尔”的说法普遍存在于当代关于尼泊尔民族认同的话语中。本文重点介绍生活在尼泊尔以外的一些尼泊尔人如何利用对佛陀出生地的主张，将其作为维持与尼泊尔作为流散家园的联系的一种方式，以及作为建立自己的网络名人的一种方式。特别是，我分析了三位尼泊尔 YouTube 用户（Lex Limbu、James Shrestha 和 Sagar Tamang）如何在网上传播这一说法，他们的视频将佛陀出生地的说法嵌入到可识别的流派、模因和叙述中，这些都是互联网共享内容的一部分文化。我认为，这些视频的制作者不仅重申了他们与尼泊尔作为他们散居的家园的联系感，但也通过将自己作为数字微名人的声誉与佛陀的全球知名度联系起来，建立自己的个人品牌。通过这个案例研究，我的目的是从理论上说明微名人如何成为在数字侨民背景下远距离实践公民身份的一种形式。