About

Robot Monk, also known as Gabi The Robotic Buddhist Monk, refers to a viral video of a humanoid robot monk that spread across social media platforms in early May 2026, particularly X / Twitter. The robot, named Gabi, debuted at Jogye Temple in South Korea, wearing traditional Buddhist robes and standing before monks while "pledging" itself to Buddhism. As the video spread, X users noted the resemblance to the Overwatch character Zenyatta, who is described as an Omnic monk. The robotic monk continued to garner attention and spawn memes referencing it over the following days,

Origin

On May 6th, 2026, the official Reuters X^[1] account, @Reuters, posted a video of the robotic monk, reporting "South Korea's first humanoid robot monk made its debut at Jogye Temple in Seoul, ahead of Buddha's birthday." The video quickly spread across the platform, amassing over 4.4 million views and 8,300 likes in about two days.

Spread

As the video spread in early May 2026, many began to point out the similarities between Gabi and the character Zenyatta from the video game series Overwatch, also a robotic monk.

On May 6th, 2026, X^[2] user @Rakattack referenced an Overwatch map, saying, "Don't bring him to Kings Row." The post received over 1.4 million views and 47,000 likes in about two days.

The next day, the X^[3] account @Dexerto reported that the robot had pledged itself to Buddhism, which received over 3.8 million views and 19,000 likes in one day.

On May 7th, 2026, the official Overwatch X^[4] account, @PlayOverwatch, commented on the original Reuters post with a GIF of Zenyatta, which received over 442,600 views and 18,000 likes in one day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References