Tibetan Medicine in the Contemporary World Global politics of medical knowledge and practice Edited by Laurent Pordié Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORKTibetan Medicine in the Contemporary World This remarkable multi-authored volume will decisively transform conventional understanding about indigenous medical knowledge and practices of all kinds in the contemporary world. Margaret Lock, Professor in Social Studies in Medicine at McGill University The popularity of Tibetan medicine plays a central role in the international market for alternative medicine and has been increasing and extending far beyond its original cultural area, becoming a global phenomenon. This book analyses Tibetan medicine in the twenty-first century by considering the contemporary reasons that have led to its diversity and by bringing out the common orientations of this medical system. Using case studies that examine the social, political and identity dynamics of Tibetan medicine in Nepal, India, the PRC, Mongolia, the UK and the US, the contributors to this book answer the following three, fundamental questions: + What are the modalities and issues involved in the social and therapeutic transformations of Tibetan medicine? + How are national policies and health reforms connected to the processes of contemporary redefinition of this medicine? * How does Tibetan medicine fit into the present, globalized context of the medical world? Written by experts in the field from the US, France, Canada, China and the UK, this book will be invaluable to students and scholars interested in contemporary medicine, Tibetan studies, health studies and the anthropology of Asia. Laurent Pordié is Director of the Department of Social Sciences at the French Institute of Pondicherry and a Fellow at the Centre de Recherche ‘Cultures, Santé, Sociétés’ (CReCSS), Paul Cézanne University at Aix-Marseille.10 An ancient medicine in a new world A Tibetan medicine doctor’s reflections from “inside” Eliot Tokar In 1998, my first Tibetan medicine teacher, Yeshi Dhonden, gave a lecture at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The invitation that was extended to Dr Dhonden by the hospital represented a growing trend in some large American hospitals where in-house complementary and alternative medicine units sponsor lectures by practitioners of non-biomedical systems. The intention of such programs is to create some understanding among the hospital’s personnel regarding so-called “complementary and alternative” medical systems. Unfortunately, the audiences of biomedical physicians and allied medical professionals who attend such presentations rarely have the background required for them to understand the concepts and the terminology of the presenter. This made for some difficulty, because Dr Dhonden, who is recognized as one of the great living experts on Tibetan medicine, was speaking fully in terms of his own discipline. In his lecture Dr Dhonden discussed a broad range of issues of medical, psychological, eco- logical, and spiritual matters as seen from the perspective of Tibetan medicine and Tibetan Buddhism. Despite what the hospital’s organizer later described to me as a general lack of understanding by the assembled group of hospital personnel, the audience was polite, and Dr Dhonden held sway with his lecture and his considerable charisma for more than an hour. At the conclusion of the lecture there was a question-and-answer period. During the exchange someone put forth the following query: “Dr Dhonden, you have said that the texts of Tibetan medicine are very ancient. Given that, how can Tibetan medicine possibly deal with new diseases which clearly did not exist centuries ago?” Dr Dhonden responded by saying: Why should this be a problem? Are we not all still living on the planct Earth? We are not after all speaking about some other unknown galaxy. The physical realities that exist here now are explained in Tibetan medicine’s theory of the five elements that are the basis for all material phenomena, and they are the same as in ancient times. He explained: “Based on our understanding of the three principles of function of the body and mind (nyes-pa), rlung, mkhris-pa and bad-kan, that are comprised of those elements, we are able to diagnose disease.” He proceeded to explain how,