Tibetan Medicine in Exile: The Ethics, Politics and Science of Cultural Survival
<p>A Tibetan-Chinese dictionary of the following format: Tibetan (script)-Chinese (script)-transliteration (Latin)-Explanation. (Michael Walter and Manfred Taube 2006-05-15, revised by Bill McGrath 2008-01-03)</p>
This article advances the hypothesis that “traditional” Asian pharmaceutical industries are rapidly growing in size and prominence in contemporary Asia, and identifies a lack of empirical data on the phenomenon. Addressing this gap, the article provides a quantitative outline and analysis of the Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan, Mongolian and Himalayan medicine) pharmaceutical industry in China, India, Mongolia and Bhutan. Using original data gathered through multi-sited ethnographic and textual research between 2014 and 2019, involving 232 industry representatives, policy makers, researchers, pharmacists and physicians, it assembles a bigger picture on this industry's structure, size and dynamics. Revealing a tenfold growth of the Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry in Asia between 2000 and 2017, the study supports its initial hypothesis. In 2017, the industry had a total sales value of 677.5 million USD, and constituted an important economic and public health resource in Tibetan, Mongolian and Himalayan regions of Asia. China generates almost 98 percent of the total sales value, which is explained by significant state intervention on the one hand, and historical and sociocultural reasons on the other. India has the second largest Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry with an annual sales value of about 11 million USD, while sales values in Mongolia and Bhutan are very low, despite Sowa Rigpa's domestic importance for the two nations. The article concludes with a number of broader observations emerging from the presented data, arguing that the Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry has become big enough to exert complex transformative effects on Tibetan, Mongolian and Himalayan medicine more generally. The quantitative and qualitative data presented here provide crucial foundations for further scholarly, regulatory, and professional engagement with contemporary Sowa Rigpa.
BACKGROUND: To test alternative medicine approaches with a specifically designed Tibetan dietary and behavioral program in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD) and manifest metabolic syndrome.METHODS: This was a randomized, controlled, double-blinded, parallel group dietary and behavioral intervention study. Between December 2008 and November 2010, patients were randomly adjudicated either to evidence-based Western diet (usual care), or to Tibetan diet. We evaluated 524 patients undergoing coronary angiography. All patients were white Caucasian, presented with a body mass index (BMI) >25 kg/m(2), and had evidence of metabolic syndrome. The primary endpoint was change in body weight and BMI at 6 months follow-up. Secondary endpoints included blood pressure, heart rate, intima media thickness, lipids, fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein (CRP) at 6 months follow-up and change in body weight and BMI at 12 months.
RESULTS: Both groups of patients showed significantly reduced body weight and BMI compared to baseline (6 months, usual care weight change: -3.2 ± 3.0 kg; BMI change: -1.1 ± 1.0 kg/m(2); Tibetan diet weight change: -6.2 ± 4.4 kg/m(2); BMI change: -2.1 ± 1.5 kg/m(2)), but these changes were more pronounced in Tibetan diet compared to usual care (all, p<0.001). Beneficial effects on weight and BMI were maintained after 12 months of follow-up (p<0.0001). Levels of total and LDL cholesterols, fibrinogen and CRP were decreased in both groups, but more pronounced in Tibetan diet (Tibetan diet vs. usual care (total cholesterol): 176.2 ± 43.7 vs. 185.1 ± 47.8 mg/dL; p=0.024; LDL: 111.6 ± 37.8 vs. 119.4 ± 40.9 mg/dL; p=0.026; fibrinogen: 318.3 ± 90.4 vs. 334.1 ± 87.9 mg/dL; p=0.040; CRP: 1.2 ± 3.0 vs. 2.2 ± 4.5mg/dL; p=0.036).
CONCLUSIONS: Tibetan diet reduces body weight and BMI in patients with CAD and metabolic syndrome after 6 months significantly better than Western diet and may induce lipid-modifying and anti-inflammatory effects (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00810992).
Ecologist Steven Harding discusses the need to break away from self-centered consciousness and awaken the "ecological self."
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