This is the first critical and detailed account of Tibetan medicine's re-establishment and development in exile. Based on over 150 interviews with key figures as well as previously untranslated written sources gathered during more than one year
Tibetan medicine or Sowa Rigpa was largely ignored in classic publications on “Asian medical systems.” This article contends that one important reason for this oversight was that Tibetan medicine had not yet managed to establish itself as a recognizable medical system at that time. This has changed only recently with ongoing political and economic processes through which Tibetan medicine in exile has been transformed, since the 1990s, from a regional health tradition into a globally recognizable and clearly defined and delimited medical system. After some reflection on the notion of medical systems, this article focuses on the events and interests that led to the establishment of the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine in early 2004, which can be regarded as the official establishment of Sowa Rigpa as a medical system. The discussion then moves on to the consequences of this development for Tibetan medicine in exile at large, and for its most powerful institution, the Men-Tsee-Khang, in particular. The outcome of wider exile Tibetan political aspirations, Sowa Rigpa’s “embodiment” as a medical system also has direct medical and pharmaceutical dimensions, manifesting most importantly in efforts to regulate and standardize its syllabi, clinical practice, and pharmaceutical production. The article gives in-depth insights into some of the most important recent developments in Tibetan medicine in exile, its economic and political organization, and the role of its main institutions.
In this article I explore, for the first time, the relationship between Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine) and global health, tracing "the global" in ethical discourses and pharmaceutical innovation practices of Tibetan medical practitioners. I argue that Sowa Rigpa's engagement with the world and its global health activities outside China can be understood as a form of "humanitarianism from below," while its industrialization in China aligns with global health in different ways. In providing new insights into recent developments of Sowa Rigpa, I aim to decenter the notion of humanitarianism and contribute to a broader understanding of global health.;
(Im-)Potent Knowledges. Preserving 'Traditional' Tibetan Medicine Through Modern Science
Introduction: The Translation and Development of Tibetan Medicine in Exile
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Navigating 'Modern Science'and 'Traditional Culture': the Dharamsala Men-Tsee-Khang in India
Objective: The purpose of the study is to determine if an updated online evidence-based educational programme delivered through Facebook is effective in improving the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy of patients with arthritis in relation to evidence-based self-management rehabilitation interventions for osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Adult patients (>18 years old) with self-reported OA or RA were eligible for the study. One-hundred-and-ten participants were recruited from the general public and different arthritis patient organizations throughout Canada. Eleven participants were selected to participate in focus groups to select effective self-management strategies for OA and RA according to level of implementation burden. Ninety-nine participants were then selected to participate in the online Facebook intervention which included a group' web page providing case-based video clips on how to apply the selected self-management interventions. Over a three-month period participants were asked to complete three online questionnaires regarding their previous knowledge, intention to use/actual use of the self-management strategies, self-efficacy and confidence in managing their condition. Results: Knowledge acquisition scores improved among OA and RA participants with a mean difference of 1.8 (p < 0.01) when compared from baseline to immediate post-intervention. At three months post-intervention, almost all self-management strategies were successful with participants following through on their intention to use the self-management strategies; however, statistically significant results were only demonstrated for aquatic jogging' (p < 0.05) and yoga' (p < 0.05) among OA participants, and aquatic therapy' (p < 0.01) among RA participants. Self-efficacy was maintained from immediate post-intervention to three months follow-up, and confidence improved as the study progressed. Conclusions: This online programme can provide patient organization representatives with the opportunity to learn about and integrate evidence-based self-management strategies for OA and RA in their daily lives, to increase their awareness of useful community resources, and support their efforts to disseminate the information to others with arthritis.
This article analyses the history and development of Tibetan medicine in exile from the perspective of the pervasive Tibetan exile narrative of preservation and loss. Through combined ethnographic and historical data, it shows how the preservation of
This article analyzes the history and development of Tibetan medicine in exile from the perspective of the pervasive Tibetan exile narrative of preservation and loss. Through combined ethnographic and historical data, it shows how the preservation of traditional Tibetan medical knowledge in exile entails a process of a fundamental reinvention of its nature, not only rendering it modern but also (re)investing it with considerable hegemonic power. As Tibetan medicine in exile has come to stand for the nation as envisioned by the Tibetan government-in-exile, its preservation is imbued with a significance that far exceeds the medical realm. Indeed, despite a well-established discourse of preservation and loss that implies a precarious state of weakness, Tibetan medical knowledge functions (along with Tibetan Buddhism) as an important means to preserve a weakened but still existing and real Tibetan cultural hegemony in exile. Thus, while common rhetoric assumes a triumph of modern science and a gradual loss of traditional knowledge, the case of Tibetan medicine shows that we need to take the latter seriously as an important apparatus of power even today.
The article reviews the book "Precious Pills: Medicine and Social Change Among Tibetan Refugees in India," by Audrey Prost.
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In the Upper Amazon, mestizos are the Spanish-speaking descendants of Hispanic colonizers and the indigenous peoples of the jungle. Some mestizos have migrated to Amazon towns and cities, such as Iquitos and Pucallpa; most remain in small villages. They have retained features of a folk Catholicism and traditional Hispanic medicine, and have incorporated much of the religious tradition of the Amazon, especially its healing, sorcery, shamanism, and the use of potent plant hallucinogens, including ayahuasca. The result is a uniquely eclectic shamanist culture that continues to fascinate outsiders with its brilliant visionary art. Ayahuasca shamanism is now part of global culture. Once the terrain of anthropologists, it is now the subject of novels and spiritual memoirs, while ayahuasca shamans perform their healing rituals in Ontario and Wisconsin.Singing to the Plants sets forth just what this shamanism is about--what happens at an ayahuasca healing ceremony, how the apprentice shaman forms a spiritual relationship with the healing plant spirits, how sorcerers inflict the harm that the shaman heals, and the ways that plants are used in healing, love magic, and sorcery.
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