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The production of Tibetan pharmaceuticals underwent a far-reaching transformation over the past decade. The introduction of good manufacturing practices (GMP) marked the beginning of rapid industrialization: new factories were built, and the companies re-oriented themselves to the requirements of the market. While officially regarded a great success, many doctors and pharmacists see GMP as fundamentally incompatible with traditional production methods and notions of quality. In this article, I address this incompatibility and examine where and how it affects the actual practice of producing medicines. While the problem exists, I argue that it does not stem from conflicting epistemologies but rather from the side effects of a quick and forced implementation, which often contradicts the spirit and letter of the regulations themselves. The case sheds new light on the way in which ideas about quality and safety, forged in the global arena, are locally recontextualized.
"Reveals the dramatic story of a family of Tibetan physicians from Buryatia (Siberia). The Badmayevs brought Tibetan medicine to the West: to St. Petersburg, Poland, Switzerland and the USA. They were border-dwellers who ventured to translate an Eastern Science into occidental thought and culture. Their story reveals a remarkable perspective of Tibetan medicine: namely, not as an ancient healing practice, but as a dynamic body of knowledge. As the Badmayevs made their way to the West, they encountered mystical inclined aristocrats, revolutionary lamas, party members with health problems, two Polish presidents and Swiss authorities. An odyssey which entailed four generations on a journey through the turmoil of the 20th century."--Publisher's website.
Within a mere decade, hospital pharmacies throughout the Tibetan areas of the People's Republic of China have been converted into pharmaceutical companies. Confronted with the logic of capital and profit, these companies now produce commodities for a nationwide market. While these developments are depicted as a big success in China, they have also been met with harsh criticism in Tibet. At stake is a fundamental (re- )manufacturing of Tibetan medicine as a system of knowledge and practice. Being important both to the agenda of the Party State's policies on Tibet and to Tibetan self-understan.