Modeling Buddhist Lineages: Semantic Challenges and Visual Representation
Test copy of the proposal on semantic-mediawiki.org, used to test Template:AgendaDay26. Time slot and status are test values from the draft program.
Modeling Buddhist Lineages: Semantic Challenges and Visual Representation (Talk, 20 min, In-person, Accepted)
Speakers: Anton Krom · Start: 2026/11/11 10:00:00 · Conference: MediaWiki Users and Developers Conference Fall 2026
Modeling people across family, incarnation, and transmission networks while preserving uncertain identities, dates, relationships, emanations, and historical gaps through semantic data and graph visualization. Experience representing people across overlapping but fundamentally different networks:
- biological family trees
- Buddhist mindstreams and incarnation lineages
- knowledge and transmission networks (teacher–student relationships, Dharma friends)
The presentation explores the challenges of modeling uncertain identities, incomplete or approximate dates and relationships, multiple consorts, emanations, and missing or non-existent historical records. A particular challenge is distinguishing between a historical person and the root mindstream of an incarnation lineage.
It demonstrates how semantic modeling and purpose-built graph visualizations can preserve rather than obscure these ambiguities, while helping users navigate kinship, transmission, incarnation, and continuity across generations.
