Barbara Gerke
University of Vienna, Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, Department Member
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Tibetan Studies, Medical Anthropology, Ageing and Health, Tibetan Medicine, Tibetan Buddhism, Social Anthropology, and 30 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Translation Studies, Religious Studies, Translation, Ritual, Traditional Medicine, Mercury toxicity, Longevity, Aging and Longevity, Healing and Religion, Ethnographic fieldwork, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Medical History, Ayurveda, Yoga Meditation, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Anthropology of Religion, South Asian Studies, South Asian History, History of Science, History of Ideas, Cultural History, Intellectual and cultural history, Alchemy, Tibetan medicine, Tibetan materia medica, Tibetan traditional plant knowledge., History of Bhutan, Bhutan History, Bhutanese Studies, Buthan, and Bhutan (Anthropology) edit
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(M.Sc., D.Phil., University of Oxford). I am a social and medical anthropologist researching Tibetan medicine (Sowa R... more(M.Sc., D.Phil., University of Oxford). I am a social and medical anthropologist researching Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa), mainly in Himalayan regions. I have been the principal investigator of several research projects on Tibetan medicine in Germany and Austria. My current FWF (Austrian Science Fund) projects "Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist Ritual" and "Pandemic Narratives of Tibet and the Himalayas" are based at the University of Vienna. edit
Housing three research projects on medical traditions, the Viennese Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (ISTB) is an important hotspot for current research on the history of Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. In this... more
Housing three research projects on medical traditions, the Viennese Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (ISTB) is an important hotspot for current research on the history of Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine.
In this one-day workshop the research teams will introduce the projects to each other and to interested audiences. The event is intended to highlight the medical focus at our department, stimulate exchange between the participating researchers, and to help finding new ways of collaboration and overlapping research interests.
In this one-day workshop the research teams will introduce the projects to each other and to interested audiences. The event is intended to highlight the medical focus at our department, stimulate exchange between the participating researchers, and to help finding new ways of collaboration and overlapping research interests.
Research Interests:
Buddhism, Medical Anthropology, Tibetan Studies, Buddhist Studies, South Asian Studies, and 9 moreAyurveda (Sanskrit language and literature), South Asia, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Tibetan Medicine, Medical History, Asian Medicine, Sowa Rigpa, COVID-19 PANDEMIC, and Sowa Rigpa Treatment of Covid-19
As part of the three-year FWF-funded project on “Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist Rituals,” we have invited a group of dedicated scholars to discuss the productive interrelationships between materiality, agency, and power in... more
As part of the three-year FWF-funded project on “Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist Rituals,” we have invited a group of dedicated scholars to discuss the productive interrelationships between materiality, agency, and power in Tibetan medical and ritual practice. How can we better understand how medicines become potent? What constitutes the agency of ritual objects and potent substances?
Research Interests:
This panel invites presentations that explore the themes of medicine, healing, contagion, and/or prophecy during outbreaks of epidemic disease, including Covid-19. In particular, we seek to emphasize the active roles of material,... more
This panel invites presentations that explore the themes of medicine, healing, contagion, and/or prophecy during outbreaks of epidemic disease, including Covid-19. In particular, we seek to emphasize the active roles of material, nonhuman, and/or spiritual forces as causes, culprits, or saviors in different epidemic times and spaces. By including analyses from clinical, textual, philological, historical, and anthropological perspectives, we aim to discuss the multitude of responses to epidemics in Tibet and beyond, especially in relation to the environment, sacred sites, spiritual ecologies, and apocalyptic prophecies.
Research Interests:
This panel invites presenters from various backgrounds to consider together how disciplinary boundaries define, shape and challenge understandings of medical traditions in South Asia. More specifically, we seek to explore the boundaries... more
This panel invites presenters from various backgrounds to consider together how disciplinary boundaries define, shape and challenge understandings of medical traditions in South Asia. More specifically, we seek to explore the boundaries between philology and ethnography, as well as the many dynamic interactions between them. Closely related yet in some ways contradictory, these methodologies and perspectives prioritise quite different sources, skill sets, analytical approaches and writing styles, the boundaries between which may variously be considered productive, enriching, artificial or limiting.
How to better harness their collective strengths in order to further understanding of relationships between texts, knowledge, theory and practice in Asian medical traditions? How to overcome the Cartesian dichotomies that still inform our definitions of such categories? When, why and how do ethnographers read texts, or philologists observe/work with practitioners? How can these methodologies be combined so as to enrich our work as individuals, in teams, at conferences, and in co-authored publications? How to bridge the gaps between premodern writings and the (post)modern predicaments facing contemporary practitioners relying on such texts, as well as the researchers translating and interpreting them?
We invite papers from anthropological and philological perspectives, across the disciplines of South Asian Studies, Indology, Tibetan Studies, Anthropology, History, Political Science and Religious Studies, to debate and share experiences concerning disciplinary boundaries, fluidity, and the relationship between medical texts and practices.
How to better harness their collective strengths in order to further understanding of relationships between texts, knowledge, theory and practice in Asian medical traditions? How to overcome the Cartesian dichotomies that still inform our definitions of such categories? When, why and how do ethnographers read texts, or philologists observe/work with practitioners? How can these methodologies be combined so as to enrich our work as individuals, in teams, at conferences, and in co-authored publications? How to bridge the gaps between premodern writings and the (post)modern predicaments facing contemporary practitioners relying on such texts, as well as the researchers translating and interpreting them?
We invite papers from anthropological and philological perspectives, across the disciplines of South Asian Studies, Indology, Tibetan Studies, Anthropology, History, Political Science and Religious Studies, to debate and share experiences concerning disciplinary boundaries, fluidity, and the relationship between medical texts and practices.
Research Interests:
Materials play a central role in all aspects of Tibetan societies – medicine, religion, trade, the arts, politics, etc. – and have therefore been an important focus of archaeological, historical and anthropological research. A renewed... more
Materials play a central role in all aspects of Tibetan societies – medicine, religion, trade, the arts, politics, etc. – and have therefore been an important focus of archaeological, historical and anthropological research. A renewed interest in materiality (here conceived simply as the properties of materials of any kind), their related practices, techniques, and knowledge transmission, has recently opened new theoretical and methodological avenues, particularly for broadening our understanding of the agency of materials. How do materials and their properties (inter)act, become potent, and change when crossing cultural divides? This panel presents an innovative opportunity to develop these themes within Tibetan Studies, from multi‐disciplinary angles. We invite presenters working with materials such as medicine, ritual substances, coins, paper, metallurgy, artistic and everyday materials, etc., offering analyses from textual, philological, historical, archaeological, and anthropological perspectives. The aim is to foster a discussion on the multiple dimensions of materials in Tibetan contexts, evaluating their conceptual value as 'materialities,' while highlighting indigenous knowledge and skillful practice.
Research Interests:
This panel proposes to bring together scholars and practitioners for a multidisciplinary exploration of ‘potent substances’—the herbal, fungal, mineral, metal, and animal-based materia medica at the heart of Asian medicines. We aim to... more
This panel proposes to bring together scholars and practitioners for a multidisciplinary exploration of ‘potent substances’—the herbal, fungal, mineral, metal, and animal-based materia medica at the heart of Asian medicines. We aim to discuss issues such as the links between materiality and understandings of efficacy, and what makes a substance ‘potent’ in a given Asian medical tradition or setting. PROCEEDINGS ARE FORTHCOMING IN HIMALAYA 39(1).
Research Interests:
http://ayuryog.org/event/conference-medicine-and-yoga-south-and-inner-asia-body-cultivation-therapeutic-intervention Vienna, August 1-3, 2017 Co-hosted by the Dept. of South Asian, Tibet and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna and... more
http://ayuryog.org/event/conference-medicine-and-yoga-south-and-inner-asia-body-cultivation-therapeutic-intervention
Vienna, August 1-3, 2017
Co-hosted by the Dept. of South Asian, Tibet and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna and the Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Building on its historic strength in Tibet and South Asian Studies, Vienna has recently become an international hotspot for historical and anthropological research on Tibetan and South Asian medical and yoga traditions. Thus, there are currently four major international research projects working on topics ranging from South Asian longevity practices to the transnational Sowa Rigpa industry, from body images across Asia to Tibetan recipes, specifically of Precious Pills. This conference is organized collaboratively by all four projects to bring together local and international experts to showcase and further strengthen this collective expertise. The aim of this conference is to present and discuss historical, textual, and contemporary insights on the following key themes:
Longevity practices as a shared concern in South Asian medical, alchemical and yogic milieus: Longevity practices are described in a range of Indic literatures and seem to form an integral part of disciplines such as medicine, alchemy and yoga. We seek to examine in what ways and in which contexts longevity practices connect these soteriological and secular disciplines, and to explore how the various practices both reflect fundamental differences in aims and approaches between the different traditions and highlight their commonalities.
The emergence of a transnational Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry in India, China, Mongolia, and Bhutan: How does a “traditional” pharmaceutical industry develop and function? What is the size and shape of the Sowa Rigpa industry in Asia, and what are its larger effects on local and regional economies, politics, environments, and public health? By exploring diverse aspects of the Sowa Rigpa industry, from the raw materials through pharmaceutical production to questions of identity and ownership, we aim to generate a new understanding of Sowa Rigpa and traditional medicine today.
Tibetan formulas explored through textual and ethnographic analysis: We want to discuss “biographies” of medicines (of Tibetan Precious Pills but also other popular formulas) and consider their textual history, ingredients, contemporary therapeutic use, their perceived socio-political, religious and medical efficacies, as well as their their contemporary production, knowledge transmission and therapeutic applications. Contributions should go beyond existing approaches of “things as commodities,” combining textual and ethnographic methods in a broad analysis of “biographies” of medicines and explore recipes that drive the Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry today.
Images of the human being in Tibet and across Asia: Medical concepts give rise to and are built into certain frameworks embedded in cultural and religious contexts. Presentations will examine tensions arising from encounters between different frameworks, such as Buddhist and medical ideals described in the classical scriptures on the one hand and the reality of the diseased, suffering human being asking for help on the other. We will explore how conflicting biomedical and traditional concepts mutually stimulate and enrich one another, particularly in regard to their impact on patient safety and compliance.
The conference will address a wide variety of interdisciplinary contributions addressing textual, historical, ethnobotanical, and ethnographical aspects to all of these four broad topics.
Conference conveners:
Dagmar Wujastyk (ERC Starting Grant AyurYog)
Stephan Kloos (ERC Starting Grant RATIMED)
Barbara Gerke (FWF Lise-Meitner Senior Research Fellowship)
Katharina Sabernig (FWF project P26129-G21)
Vienna, August 1-3, 2017
Co-hosted by the Dept. of South Asian, Tibet and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna and the Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Building on its historic strength in Tibet and South Asian Studies, Vienna has recently become an international hotspot for historical and anthropological research on Tibetan and South Asian medical and yoga traditions. Thus, there are currently four major international research projects working on topics ranging from South Asian longevity practices to the transnational Sowa Rigpa industry, from body images across Asia to Tibetan recipes, specifically of Precious Pills. This conference is organized collaboratively by all four projects to bring together local and international experts to showcase and further strengthen this collective expertise. The aim of this conference is to present and discuss historical, textual, and contemporary insights on the following key themes:
Longevity practices as a shared concern in South Asian medical, alchemical and yogic milieus: Longevity practices are described in a range of Indic literatures and seem to form an integral part of disciplines such as medicine, alchemy and yoga. We seek to examine in what ways and in which contexts longevity practices connect these soteriological and secular disciplines, and to explore how the various practices both reflect fundamental differences in aims and approaches between the different traditions and highlight their commonalities.
The emergence of a transnational Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry in India, China, Mongolia, and Bhutan: How does a “traditional” pharmaceutical industry develop and function? What is the size and shape of the Sowa Rigpa industry in Asia, and what are its larger effects on local and regional economies, politics, environments, and public health? By exploring diverse aspects of the Sowa Rigpa industry, from the raw materials through pharmaceutical production to questions of identity and ownership, we aim to generate a new understanding of Sowa Rigpa and traditional medicine today.
Tibetan formulas explored through textual and ethnographic analysis: We want to discuss “biographies” of medicines (of Tibetan Precious Pills but also other popular formulas) and consider their textual history, ingredients, contemporary therapeutic use, their perceived socio-political, religious and medical efficacies, as well as their their contemporary production, knowledge transmission and therapeutic applications. Contributions should go beyond existing approaches of “things as commodities,” combining textual and ethnographic methods in a broad analysis of “biographies” of medicines and explore recipes that drive the Sowa Rigpa pharmaceutical industry today.
Images of the human being in Tibet and across Asia: Medical concepts give rise to and are built into certain frameworks embedded in cultural and religious contexts. Presentations will examine tensions arising from encounters between different frameworks, such as Buddhist and medical ideals described in the classical scriptures on the one hand and the reality of the diseased, suffering human being asking for help on the other. We will explore how conflicting biomedical and traditional concepts mutually stimulate and enrich one another, particularly in regard to their impact on patient safety and compliance.
The conference will address a wide variety of interdisciplinary contributions addressing textual, historical, ethnobotanical, and ethnographical aspects to all of these four broad topics.
Conference conveners:
Dagmar Wujastyk (ERC Starting Grant AyurYog)
Stephan Kloos (ERC Starting Grant RATIMED)
Barbara Gerke (FWF Lise-Meitner Senior Research Fellowship)
Katharina Sabernig (FWF project P26129-G21)
Research Interests:
Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Material Manifestations of Protection and Treatment COVID-19 affected people across the globe, but how the pandemic played out over the past three years varied greatly across different contexts. Based... more
Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Material Manifestations of Protection and Treatment COVID-19 affected people across the globe, but how the pandemic played out over the past three years varied greatly across different contexts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, this presentation explores how Sowa Rigpa communities prepared for and reacted to this rapidly developing crisis. We compare some responses of traditional medical institutions and privately operating physicians and highlight ways in which their pandemic-related practices were impacted by state public health policies and the legal status of Sowa Rigpa.
For ZOOM link see the poster.
For ZOOM link see the poster.
Research Interests:
4 November 2022,
3 p.m. (c.t.)
Department of South Asian, Tibetan and
Buddhist Studies, seminar room 1
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7, 1090 Vienna
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For online participation
please register by 3 November:
barbara.gerke@univie.ac.at
3 p.m. (c.t.)
Department of South Asian, Tibetan and
Buddhist Studies, seminar room 1
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7, 1090 Vienna
----------
For online participation
please register by 3 November:
barbara.gerke@univie.ac.at
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Barbara Gerke (University of Vienna) will present her monograph TAMING THE POISONOUS: MERCURY, TOXICITY, AND SAFETY IN TIBETAN MEDICAL PRACTICE, Heidelberg University Publishing 2021 (open access) as part of a collective book launch of... more
Barbara Gerke (University of Vienna) will present her monograph TAMING THE POISONOUS: MERCURY, TOXICITY, AND SAFETY IN TIBETAN MEDICAL PRACTICE, Heidelberg University Publishing 2021 (open access) as part of a collective book launch of three books on poisons that were published in 2021.
WITH: Yan Liu, SUNY Buffalo, HEALING WITH POISONS, on the use of poisons as potent medicines in medieval Chinese pharmacy;
Alisha Rankin, Tufts University, THE POISON TRIALS, on testing poison antidotes in early modern Europe.
Shigehisa Kuriyama (Moderator), David Arnold (Discussant), and Katharine Park (Respondent).
WITH: Yan Liu, SUNY Buffalo, HEALING WITH POISONS, on the use of poisons as potent medicines in medieval Chinese pharmacy;
Alisha Rankin, Tufts University, THE POISON TRIALS, on testing poison antidotes in early modern Europe.
Shigehisa Kuriyama (Moderator), David Arnold (Discussant), and Katharine Park (Respondent).
Research Interests:
FREE OPEN ACCESS: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/746?lang=en This rich ethnographic and socio-historical account uncovers how toxicity and safety are expressed transculturally in a globalizing world. For the first time, it... more
FREE OPEN ACCESS:
https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/746?lang=en
This rich ethnographic and socio-historical account uncovers how toxicity and safety are expressed transculturally in a globalizing world. For the first time, it unpacks the “pharmaceutical nexus” of mercury in Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) where, since the thirteenth century, it has mainly been used in the form of tsotel. Tsotel, an organometallic mercury sulfide compound, is added in small amounts to specific medicines to enhance the potency of other ingredients. In concordance with tantric Buddhist ideas, Tibetan medical practitioners confront and tame poisonous substances, and instead of avoiding or expelling them, transform them into potent medicines and elixirs.
Recently, the UN Environment Programme’s global ban on mercury, the Minamata Convention, has sparked debates on the use of mercury in Asian medicines. As Asian medical traditions increasingly intersect with biomedical science and technology, what is at stake when Tibetan medical practitioners in India and Nepal, researchers, and regulators negotiate mercury’s toxicity and safety? Who determines what is “toxic” and what is “safe,” and how? What does this mean for the future of traditional Asian medical and pharmaceutical practices?
https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/746?lang=en
This rich ethnographic and socio-historical account uncovers how toxicity and safety are expressed transculturally in a globalizing world. For the first time, it unpacks the “pharmaceutical nexus” of mercury in Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) where, since the thirteenth century, it has mainly been used in the form of tsotel. Tsotel, an organometallic mercury sulfide compound, is added in small amounts to specific medicines to enhance the potency of other ingredients. In concordance with tantric Buddhist ideas, Tibetan medical practitioners confront and tame poisonous substances, and instead of avoiding or expelling them, transform them into potent medicines and elixirs.
Recently, the UN Environment Programme’s global ban on mercury, the Minamata Convention, has sparked debates on the use of mercury in Asian medicines. As Asian medical traditions increasingly intersect with biomedical science and technology, what is at stake when Tibetan medical practitioners in India and Nepal, researchers, and regulators negotiate mercury’s toxicity and safety? Who determines what is “toxic” and what is “safe,” and how? What does this mean for the future of traditional Asian medical and pharmaceutical practices?
Research Interests:
Buddhism, Asian Studies, Medical Anthropology, History of Medicine, Tibetan Studies, and 15 moreBuddhist Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, South Asian Studies, History of Science, Traditional Medicine, Toxicology, Occupational Health & Safety, Alchemy, South Asia, Ayurveda, Social History of Medicine, Tibetan and Himalayan societies, Tibetan Medicine, Mercury toxicity, and Rasa Shastra
Longevity and long-life practices have been a pan-Tibetan concern for a very long time, but have hardly been studied by anthropologists. This book presents ethnographic accounts and textual material demonstrating how Tibetans in the... more
Longevity and long-life practices have been a pan-Tibetan concern for a very long time, but have hardly been studied by anthropologists. This book presents ethnographic accounts and textual material demonstrating how Tibetans in the Darjeeling Hills, India, view the life-span and map out certain life-forces in various areas of knowledge. These life-forces follow daily, monthly, and annual cycles. Divinations and astrological calculations are widely but varyingly used by Tibetans to assess the strength of life-forces and forecast difficult periods in their lives. Loss, exhaustion, or periodic weaknesses of life-forces are treated medically or through Tibetan Buddhist practices and rituals. In all these events, temporality and agency are deeply interlinked in the ways in which Tibetans enhance their vitality, prolong their life-spans, and avoid ‘untimely deaths.’"
Research Interests:
Medical Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, History of Ideas, Tibetan Studies, Buddhist Studies, and 14 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Divination, Ritual, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism, Ritual (Anthropology), Ageing and Health, Religious Studies, Tibetan Medicine, Longevity, Aging and Longevity, Anthropology of Religion, Longer Lifespan, and Tibetan Divination
2013, vol. 8.1, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. 239 pp. ISSN: 1573-420X. SPECIAL ISSUE EDITOR: BARBARA GERKE. SENIOR EDITORS: MONA SCHREMPF AND MARTA HANSON This special issue of Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity... more
2013, vol. 8.1, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. 239 pp. ISSN: 1573-420X.
SPECIAL ISSUE EDITOR: BARBARA GERKE.
SENIOR EDITORS: MONA SCHREMPF AND MARTA HANSON
This special issue of Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity presents nine papers on approaches to and perspectives on the use of mercury in ayurvedic and Tibetan medical traditions. This issue contributes to ongoing debates regarding the toxicity of mercury-containing Asian medical products. As the articles show, such debates are not only scientific in nature, but also have epistemological, legal, and political aspects. Six academic articles cover textual, ethnographic, and political science analysis on mercury in Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. The section on ‘Legal Aspects’ covers the legislation of mercury-containing Asian medicines in the EU, and specifically in Germany. In ‘Field Notes’ an ayurvedic physician presents his experience with mercury processing in the form of a personal memoir, richly illustrated with photos depicting the equipment used to distill and process mercury. ‘Practice Reports’ presents a report on the processing of mercury in an ayurvedic setting.
SPECIAL ISSUE EDITOR: BARBARA GERKE.
SENIOR EDITORS: MONA SCHREMPF AND MARTA HANSON
This special issue of Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity presents nine papers on approaches to and perspectives on the use of mercury in ayurvedic and Tibetan medical traditions. This issue contributes to ongoing debates regarding the toxicity of mercury-containing Asian medical products. As the articles show, such debates are not only scientific in nature, but also have epistemological, legal, and political aspects. Six academic articles cover textual, ethnographic, and political science analysis on mercury in Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. The section on ‘Legal Aspects’ covers the legislation of mercury-containing Asian medicines in the EU, and specifically in Germany. In ‘Field Notes’ an ayurvedic physician presents his experience with mercury processing in the form of a personal memoir, richly illustrated with photos depicting the equipment used to distill and process mercury. ‘Practice Reports’ presents a report on the processing of mercury in an ayurvedic setting.
Research Interests:
Medical Anthropology, History of Ideas, History of Medicine, Social and Cultural Anthropology, South Asian Studies, and 11 moreHistory of Science, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Ayurveda, Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Social History of Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, Mercury toxicity, Pharmacology and toxicology, Mercury studies in environmental and human health, and Ayurvedic Pharmaceutics
Research Interests:
Medical Anthropology, History of Ideas, Tibetan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, History of Science, and 11 moreAyurvedic Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Ayurveda, Social History of Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, Heavy metals, Mercury toxicity, Pharmacology and toxicology, Mercury studies in environmental and human health, Bhasma, and Ayurvedic Pharmaceutics
Scholars across disciplines working on Asian medicines are currently encountering a multitude of responses to the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), whether they are anthropologists who were recently in the field (or are... more
Scholars across disciplines working on Asian medicines are currently encountering a multitude of responses to the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), whether they are anthropologists who were recently in the field (or are under lockdown) or textual scholars making sense of the outbreak through the historiography of epidemics as depicted in classical medical and ritual texts. Varied ideas on what counts as contagion, what works for prevention, and what Asian medicines can offer in terms of treatment are circulating widely, leading to heated debates within and between practitioners, patients, and through public health policies. Traditional Asian medical texts and practices are being drawn on for anti-epidemic recipes and precautionary measures. These forms of engagement are, in turn, recasting established boundaries between nationalities, raising new questions about the enduring relationship between science and religion, and leading to novel interfaces between medical traditions and health professionals. In these entangled times of containment, protection, and (self-)care, this Hot Spots series brings together interdisciplinary accounts on the history, contemporary practices, and politics of epidemics in general, and in particular in relation to traditional medicines from Chinese and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), Daoist, Sowa Rigpa, Indian Ayurveda, Japanese Kampo, South Korean, and Vietnamese contexts.
These essays were written in March and April 2020.
These essays were written in March and April 2020.
Research Interests:
special issue editors: Barbara Gerke and Jan M A van der Valk
https://himalayajournal.org/mainnews/himalaya-39-1-2019/
https://himalayajournal.org/mainnews/himalaya-39-1-2019/
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara, and Jan M A Van der Valk. 2019. "Introduction: Approaching Potent Substances in Medicine and Ritual across Asia." Himalaya 39 (1):69-73. https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss1/10/
Research Interests:
Buddhism, Japanese Studies, Medical Anthropology, Tibetan Studies, Buddhist Studies, and 15 moreHistory of Science, Traditional Medicine, Mandalas, Ayurveda, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Burma Studies, Tibetan Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Medical History, Mercury toxicity, Buddhist Ritual, Gemstone, Rasa Shastra, High Potency Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, and Artemisinin
by Barbara Gerke, Jan M. A. van der Valk, and William A. McGrath The COVID-19 pandemic has offered an opportunity to revisit Asian medical ideas of contagion from fresh perspectives, textually, as well as through ethnographic research in... more
by Barbara Gerke, Jan M. A. van der Valk, and William A. McGrath
The COVID-19 pandemic has offered an opportunity to revisit Asian medical ideas of contagion from fresh perspectives, textually, as well as through ethnographic research in societies in which pre-modern ideas of contagion are still part of lived medical practices. During the ARI workshop on religion, COVID-19 vaccines, and structures of trust, it became clear that issues of “faith in immunity” in Asian medical contexts cannot fully be understood without first researching underlying conceptions of contagion and epidemic disease that might affect trust in vaccines. This research poses several challenges, which we will address in an interdisciplinary project introduced below.
The COVID-19 pandemic has offered an opportunity to revisit Asian medical ideas of contagion from fresh perspectives, textually, as well as through ethnographic research in societies in which pre-modern ideas of contagion are still part of lived medical practices. During the ARI workshop on religion, COVID-19 vaccines, and structures of trust, it became clear that issues of “faith in immunity” in Asian medical contexts cannot fully be understood without first researching underlying conceptions of contagion and epidemic disease that might affect trust in vaccines. This research poses several challenges, which we will address in an interdisciplinary project introduced below.
Research Interests:
This paper is based on personal observation of a Hindu Priestess during her temple trances and her treatment of patients in Darjeeling, situated in the northeastern Himalayas. The Priestess, Mataji Kumari Cintury, is devoted to Goddess... more
This paper is based on personal observation of a Hindu Priestess during her temple trances and her treatment of patients in Darjeeling, situated in the northeastern Himalayas. The Priestess, Mataji Kumari Cintury, is devoted to Goddess Durga, a wrathful form of the Mother Goddess. The article gives some background information on Goddess Durga and her festivals as well as on Mataji's temple trances. A personal interview with Mataji on her childhood and education is included. The article ends with a description of a purification ritual conducted at her temple in Darjeeling.
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara. 2020. "Sowa Rigpa in Lockdown: On the Potency and Politics of Prevention." Hot Spots, Fieldsights, June 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/sowa-rigpa-in-lockdown-on-the-potency-and-politics-of-prevention
Research Interests:
Craig, Sienna R., Barbara Gerke, and Jan M. A. van der Valk. 2020. "Asian Medicines and Covid-19: An Introduction." Hot Spots, Fieldsights, June 23.... more
Craig, Sienna R., Barbara Gerke, and Jan M. A. van der Valk. 2020. "Asian Medicines and Covid-19: An Introduction." Hot Spots, Fieldsights, June 23.
https://culanth.org/fieldsights/series/responding-to-an-unfolding-pandemic-asian-medicines-and-covid-19
The idea for this Hot Spots series emerged in early March 2020, as the epidemic was moving from Asia to Europe and North America. The essays presented here were written during the months of March and April 2020, and therefore roughly relate to events and debates unfolding during that time period of the pandemic. ....
https://culanth.org/fieldsights/series/responding-to-an-unfolding-pandemic-asian-medicines-and-covid-19
The idea for this Hot Spots series emerged in early March 2020, as the epidemic was moving from Asia to Europe and North America. The essays presented here were written during the months of March and April 2020, and therefore roughly relate to events and debates unfolding during that time period of the pandemic. ....
Research Interests:
The epidemic of COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been in the headlines since December 2019. This Think Piece presents ethnographic vignettes from a recent (February 2020) field visit... more
The epidemic of COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been in the headlines since December 2019. This Think Piece presents ethnographic vignettes from a recent (February 2020) field visit to Dharamsala, where the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and a Tibetan exile community reside in the northwestern Indian Himalayas. At that time there were no COVID-19 cases in India except in Kerala, South India, which had three confirmed cases. There were no cases in Tibetan communities in India, but they were considered vulnerable because of the influx of Buddhist pilgrims from China. My ethnographic focus is on traditional Tibetan medical responses of prevention and conceptions of contagion prior to any outbreak. I explore what counts as prevention, protection, and contagion in a Tibetan medical public outreach context during pre-epidemic days, and how politics and fear of ‘the other’ merge with the preventive aspects of traditional medicinal products and public health announcements in Dharamsala. Taken together, these ethnographic vignettes illustrate how local epidemic imaginaries draw on complex webs of potency. These combine, for example, substances and their smells with mantras, protective oils, and facemasks in varied ways, all in an effort to reduce anxiety and prevent contagion.
Research Interests:
Medical Anthropology, Ethnography, History of Medicine, Tibetan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 12 moreFieldwork in Anthropology, Public Health, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan diaspora, Social History of Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, Amulets, Epidemiology and Public Health, Asian Medicine, Coronavirus COVID-19, and COVID-19 PANDEMIC
This article examines the circulation of humanitarian ideas, materials, and actions in a non‐biomedical and non‐Judeo–Christian context: Sowa Rigpa or Tibetan medical camps in India and Nepal. Through these camps, practitioners and... more
This article examines the circulation of humanitarian ideas, materials, and actions in a non‐biomedical and non‐Judeo–Christian context: Sowa Rigpa or Tibetan medical camps in India and Nepal. Through these camps, practitioners and patients alike often overtly articulate Sowa Rigpa medicine as part of a broader humanitarian “good” motivated by a Buddhist‐inflected ethics of compassion and a moral economy of care, diverging from mainstream public health and conventional humanitarian projects. Three ethnographic case studies demonstrate how micro‐political interactions at camps engage with ethical and religious imaginaries. We show how the ordinary ethics of Sowa Rigpa humanitarianism gain distinct political meaning in contrast to non‐Tibetan forms of aid, reconfiguring the relationship between Buddhism, essential medicines, moral economies, and politics. While Sowa Rigpa as a medical system operates transnationally, these camps are organized around local logics of emergent care, employing narratives of “charity” and Buddhist compassion when addressing health needs.
Research Interests:
Turquoise, coral, rubies, diamonds, amber, and pearls are among the potent substances used in Tibet’s medical traditions, specifically in ‘precious pills’ or rinchen rilbu (rin chen ril bu). Tibetan physicians use precious stones as... more
Turquoise, coral, rubies, diamonds, amber, and pearls are among the potent substances used in Tibet’s medical traditions, specifically in ‘precious pills’ or rinchen rilbu (rin chen ril bu). Tibetan physicians use precious stones as medicines only after processing, without which none of them are considered medically beneficial. In this paper, I analyze three precious substances—turquoise, coral, and pearl—which appear together in many precious pill formulas and are processed using the same techniques. Based on textual analysis and interviews with Tibetan physicians in India, I address the questions: What makes these substances particularly ‘potent,’ expressed in the Tibetan term nüpa (nus pa)? How and why are these substances processed for use in medicines, and how is processing linked to nüpa? I argue that Tibetan medical practitioners authenticate their tradition of using precious stones as potent substances primarily through relying on authoritative texts and oral transmission, since the direct sensoexperiential understanding of the stones’ nüpa is limited compared to the more sensorial assessments of the nüpa of plants through smell and taste. Findings show that potency of precious stones emerges as a complex synergy of interactions between substances and their socio-historical, religious, economic, and political values, which are all encapsulated in ‘tradition.’ In line with Neveling and Klien (2010) and Scheid (2007), I look at tradition as a fluid process of knowledge transmission over time, and analyze what happens when practitioners try to explain the rationale behind processing practices they still meticulously follow, and how questioning, especially by foreign researchers, might influence practitioners to call on biomedical science to explain tradition.
Research Interests:
This paper introduces Tibetan pill traditions and examines two exceptional pill formulas that emerged from an early Buddhist-medical interface in Tibet, but followed different trajectories due to the increased specialization of religious... more
This paper introduces Tibetan pill traditions and examines two exceptional pill formulas that emerged from an early Buddhist-medical interface in Tibet, but followed different trajectories due to the increased specialization of religious and medical knowledge. "Black pills" are the most revered consecrated healing compound of the Karmapas (the incarnate heads of the Karma Kagyü School of Tibetan Buddhism), while the "Cold Compound Black Pill"-a precious pill known as Rinchen Drangjor-is one of Tibetan medicine's most complex formulas still produced today. Based on both textual research and ethnographic fieldwork in India, I critically explore the principal factors that link these black pill traditions. I argue that parallels in the use of potent substances and their processing offer examples of how strongly entangled medical and religious approaches are with respect to healing practices that include blessings, protection, spiritual support, and medical treatment. My findings reveal that although there are distinct areas of medical and religious specialized practices in the black pill traditions, consecrated multi-compounds are added to both types of black pills to enhance potency and ensure the continuation of lineage affiliations to certain Buddhist schools. I also show how political and sectarian conflicts within certain Buddhist schools may affect some of these rare pill practices.
Research Interests:
This article raises critical questions on how recipes as a special “epistemic genre” (Pomata 2013) not only list ingredients but also encode historical data of knowledge transmission. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with Tibetan... more
This article raises critical questions on how recipes as a special
“epistemic genre” (Pomata 2013) not only list ingredients
but also encode historical data of knowledge transmission.
Combining ethnographic fieldwork with Tibetan physicians and textual
analysis of Tibetan formula books dating back to the seventeenth
century that are still in use, I raise questions on how formulas as a
genre are a meeting point between continuity and change and directly
influence the transmission of medical knowledge and affect contemporary medical practice. Taking the example of the Tibetan “precious pill” Precious Old Turquoise 25, I ask how specific recipes have
been composed and passed on by Tibetan authors and contemporary
Tibetan physicians over time. I argue that in the context of Sowa
Rigpa (gso ba rig pa, “Science of Healing”), even today, the design of
formulas necessitates continuity, authenticity, continual interpretation,
reformulation, and personal “signatures” in the making of remedies,
now largely within the context of institutionalized knowledge
transmission. In India, this poses a challenge for the present codification
of formulas into a standardized pharmacopeia as currently required
for four medical traditions (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and
Homeopathy) registered under AYUSH (the Ministry of Ayurveda,
Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa, and Homoeopathy,
Government of India), under which Sowa Rigpa was officially
recognized as a medical system in 2010. The Tibetan examples offer
original data for re-thinking the Ayurvedic model, which classifies
medicines either as “classical formulas” or “proprietary medicines.”
This model raises questions on genre, authorship, and intertextuality
both historically and in the context of current pharmaceutical standardization and codification of formulas across Asia.
“epistemic genre” (Pomata 2013) not only list ingredients
but also encode historical data of knowledge transmission.
Combining ethnographic fieldwork with Tibetan physicians and textual
analysis of Tibetan formula books dating back to the seventeenth
century that are still in use, I raise questions on how formulas as a
genre are a meeting point between continuity and change and directly
influence the transmission of medical knowledge and affect contemporary medical practice. Taking the example of the Tibetan “precious pill” Precious Old Turquoise 25, I ask how specific recipes have
been composed and passed on by Tibetan authors and contemporary
Tibetan physicians over time. I argue that in the context of Sowa
Rigpa (gso ba rig pa, “Science of Healing”), even today, the design of
formulas necessitates continuity, authenticity, continual interpretation,
reformulation, and personal “signatures” in the making of remedies,
now largely within the context of institutionalized knowledge
transmission. In India, this poses a challenge for the present codification
of formulas into a standardized pharmacopeia as currently required
for four medical traditions (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and
Homeopathy) registered under AYUSH (the Ministry of Ayurveda,
Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa, and Homoeopathy,
Government of India), under which Sowa Rigpa was officially
recognized as a medical system in 2010. The Tibetan examples offer
original data for re-thinking the Ayurvedic model, which classifies
medicines either as “classical formulas” or “proprietary medicines.”
This model raises questions on genre, authorship, and intertextuality
both historically and in the context of current pharmaceutical standardization and codification of formulas across Asia.
Research Interests:
Medical Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, History of Ideas, Tibetan Studies, Intertextuality And Plagiarism, and 10 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, History of Science, Ayurveda, Intertextuality, Genre Theory, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Pharmacopoeia History, Standardization, Tibetan Medicine, and Medical History
Tibetan precious pills are frequently attributed with a variety of efficacies, from “magical” powers, prevention of poisoning and infectious diseases, protection from harmful spirits and exposure to diseases while travelling, to... more
Tibetan precious pills are frequently attributed with a variety of efficacies, from “magical” powers, prevention of poisoning and infectious diseases, protection from harmful spirits and exposure to diseases while travelling, to rejuvenating and prolonging life through clearing the senses and promoting strength and vigor. They are prescribed as strong medicines for severe diseases, but are also advertised as rejuvenating tonics for the healthy. This paper explores the rejuvenating qualities attributed to precious pills in terms of how they are currently advertised, how rejuvenation is and has been explained in Tibetan works on precious pills, and how Tibetan physicians understand these attributes. How do these domains interact and refer to each other?
I compare aspects of rejuvenation in precious pill formulas with contemporary presentations of precious pills online and on published leaflets given out to patients in India and elsewhere. In Tibetan medical texts certain precious pills that contain the complex and processed mercury-sulfide ash called tsotel in addition to a large variety of other medicinal substances are presented as “precious pills” or rinchen rilbu, and only some of those are said to have rejuvenating effects on the body; most are primarily prescribed for specific diseases. The practice of giving precious pills to the healthy emerges more prominently in eighteenth to nineteenth century manuals on administering precious pills (Czaja 2015), which parallels the establishment of influential medical and monastic networks that promoted the making of tsotel and precious pills. I argue that precious pills have more recently widened their specific therapeutic target beyond that of medicine into becoming popular pills for rejuvenation, even if they do not contain tsotel, as part of pharmaceutical commodification. I also show how presentations of precious pills as “rejuvenating” are deeply linked to their availability.
I compare aspects of rejuvenation in precious pill formulas with contemporary presentations of precious pills online and on published leaflets given out to patients in India and elsewhere. In Tibetan medical texts certain precious pills that contain the complex and processed mercury-sulfide ash called tsotel in addition to a large variety of other medicinal substances are presented as “precious pills” or rinchen rilbu, and only some of those are said to have rejuvenating effects on the body; most are primarily prescribed for specific diseases. The practice of giving precious pills to the healthy emerges more prominently in eighteenth to nineteenth century manuals on administering precious pills (Czaja 2015), which parallels the establishment of influential medical and monastic networks that promoted the making of tsotel and precious pills. I argue that precious pills have more recently widened their specific therapeutic target beyond that of medicine into becoming popular pills for rejuvenation, even if they do not contain tsotel, as part of pharmaceutical commodification. I also show how presentations of precious pills as “rejuvenating” are deeply linked to their availability.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, History of Ideas, Tibetan Studies, and 15 moreHistory of Science, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Yoga Meditation, Alchemy, South Asian History, Ayurveda, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Intellectual and cultural history, Tibetan Buddhism, Ageing and Health, Tibetan Medicine, Healing and Religion, Medical History, Longevity, and Jewels and precious stones
Gerke, Barbara. 2017. "100th Anniversary Celebrations of the Men–Tsee–Khang - Dharamsala, India," HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 37 : No. 2: 124-126 Available at:... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2017. "100th Anniversary Celebrations of the Men–Tsee–Khang - Dharamsala, India," HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 37 : No. 2: 124-126
Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol37/iss2/19
Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol37/iss2/19
Research Interests:
Sowa Rigpa is generally translated as 'the science of healing' and often used synonymously for 'Tibetan medicine'. Historically, Sowa Rigpa can be considered a borrowed term from Sanskrit, accompanied by an adopted sense of 'science',... more
Sowa Rigpa is generally translated as 'the science of healing' and often used synonymously for 'Tibetan medicine'. Historically, Sowa Rigpa can be considered a borrowed term from Sanskrit, accompanied by an adopted sense of 'science', which initially signified all forms of medicine known to the Tibetan world, regardless of their place of origin. Over the centuries, Sowa Rigpa became linked to local, indigenous, and 'enskilled' practices; later, to nationalist political sensibilities; and of late to cultural belonging. The term evokes territoriality, claims to ownership of knowledge, concerns over sustaining national identities, and considerations about how place-based healing practices and material resources relate to the globalizing ideas about traditional Asian medicines. Textual and ethnographic analyses and interviews with practitioners from China, India, and Nepal show how Sowa Rigpa exists at once as a marker of shared intellectual and cultural histories and forms of medical practice and as a label for a globally circulating medical system with distinct interpretations. Looking at Sowa Rigpa as operating in de-and reterritorialized global spaces makes visible how, why, and to what end modernity forgets (Connerton 2009), thereby allowing for broader conclusions applicable to other medical contexts.
Research Interests:
This article emerges from a workshop titled “Producing Efficacious Medicine: Quality, Potency, Lineage, and Critically Endangered Knowledge,” held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in December 2011. An experiment in collaborative event ethnography... more
This article emerges from a workshop titled “Producing Efficacious Medicine: Quality, Potency, Lineage, and Critically
Endangered Knowledge,” held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in December 2011. An experiment in collaborative event
ethnography (CEE), this workshop brought together Tibetan medicine practitioners (amchi) from India, Nepal, and
Tibetan regions of the People’s Republic of China, with anthropologists who have been working with amchi for
decades. This workshop focused on practitioners who still compound and prescribe their own medicines, in an era
when such practitioners are declining in number due to rapid commoditization of Tibetan medicines, shifts toward
standardized mass production, institution-based education, and the implementation of pharmaceutical governance
regimes derived from biomedicine. The workshop aimed to encourage knowledge exchange between diverse practitioners
and generate new, collective, and more nuanced anthropological knowledge about Sowa Rigpa epistemology,
history, theory, and practice. Our method of choice was collaborative event ethnography formulated as a workshop
in the most literal sense of the word: a space where artisanal forms of praxis were honored and where material
things—medicines—were collectively made. This article discusses how this CEE experience departs at the level of
scope, structure, and implications from other collaborative, event-based ethnographic practice described in the anthropological
literature.
Endangered Knowledge,” held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in December 2011. An experiment in collaborative event
ethnography (CEE), this workshop brought together Tibetan medicine practitioners (amchi) from India, Nepal, and
Tibetan regions of the People’s Republic of China, with anthropologists who have been working with amchi for
decades. This workshop focused on practitioners who still compound and prescribe their own medicines, in an era
when such practitioners are declining in number due to rapid commoditization of Tibetan medicines, shifts toward
standardized mass production, institution-based education, and the implementation of pharmaceutical governance
regimes derived from biomedicine. The workshop aimed to encourage knowledge exchange between diverse practitioners
and generate new, collective, and more nuanced anthropological knowledge about Sowa Rigpa epistemology,
history, theory, and practice. Our method of choice was collaborative event ethnography formulated as a workshop
in the most literal sense of the word: a space where artisanal forms of praxis were honored and where material
things—medicines—were collectively made. This article discusses how this CEE experience departs at the level of
scope, structure, and implications from other collaborative, event-based ethnographic practice described in the anthropological
literature.
Research Interests:
In: Histories of Mercury in Medicine Across Asia and Beyond. Special issue, edited by Dagmar Wujastyk, Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques, 69(4), 867-899. doi: 10.1515/asia-2015-1041. ABSTRACT: The processing of metallic mercury into... more
In: Histories of Mercury in Medicine Across Asia and Beyond. Special issue, edited by Dagmar Wujastyk, Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques, 69(4), 867-899. doi: 10.1515/asia-2015-1041. ABSTRACT: The processing of metallic mercury into the form of a mercury sulphide ash, called tsotel (btso thal), is considered the most refined pharmacological technique known in Tibetan medicine. This ash provides the base material for many of the popular “precious pills” (rin chen ril bu), which are
considered essential by Tibetan physicians to treat severe diseases. Making tsotel and precious pills in Tibet’s past were rare and expensive events. The Chinese take-over of Tibet in the 1950s, followed by the successive reforms, including the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), affected the opportunities to transmit the knowledge and practice of making tsotel. In this article, I discuss two Tibetan physicians, Tenzin Chödrak (1924–2001) and Troru Tsenam (1926– 2004), both of whom spent many years in Chinese prisons and labour camps, and their role in the transmission of the tsotel practice in a labour camp in
1977, contextualising these events with tsotel practices in Central and South Tibet in preceding decades. Based on two contemporary biographies, their descriptions of making tsotel will be analysed as well as the ways in which the biographies depicted these events. I argue that the ways of writing about
these tsotel events in the physicians’ biographies, while silencing certain lines of knowledge transmission, established an authoritative lineage of this practice. Both physicians had a decisive impact on the continuation of the lineage and the manufacturing of tsotel and precious pills from the 1980s onwards in both India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
considered essential by Tibetan physicians to treat severe diseases. Making tsotel and precious pills in Tibet’s past were rare and expensive events. The Chinese take-over of Tibet in the 1950s, followed by the successive reforms, including the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), affected the opportunities to transmit the knowledge and practice of making tsotel. In this article, I discuss two Tibetan physicians, Tenzin Chödrak (1924–2001) and Troru Tsenam (1926– 2004), both of whom spent many years in Chinese prisons and labour camps, and their role in the transmission of the tsotel practice in a labour camp in
1977, contextualising these events with tsotel practices in Central and South Tibet in preceding decades. Based on two contemporary biographies, their descriptions of making tsotel will be analysed as well as the ways in which the biographies depicted these events. I argue that the ways of writing about
these tsotel events in the physicians’ biographies, while silencing certain lines of knowledge transmission, established an authoritative lineage of this practice. Both physicians had a decisive impact on the continuation of the lineage and the manufacturing of tsotel and precious pills from the 1980s onwards in both India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Research Interests:
Robert Saunders was a surgeon on the British Turner expedition to Tibet in 1783–85. In 1789, Saunders published a description of a mercury processing method for treating ‘the venereal disease’ that he witnessed at Tashilhunpo. Since... more
Robert Saunders was a surgeon on the British Turner expedition to Tibet in 1783–85. In 1789, Saunders published a description of a mercury processing method for treating ‘the venereal disease’ that he witnessed at Tashilhunpo. Since Saunders himself used mercury for his patients, the question arises whether he described a Tibetan method of processing mercury or projected his own experiences on what he saw. This paper traces parallels of his description and analyses venereal diseases in Tibetan medical texts. The symptoms described in these texts cannot be easily equated with modern syphilis. This article explores the following questions: How were venereal diseases classified in Tibetan medical texts? Were mercurials mentioned to treat them? Were they intended to cause salivation? In answering these questions, the heterogeneity and exchange of medical practices in Tibet from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, involving the use of mercury for venereal treatments, becomes apparent.
Research Interests:
History of Ideas, Tibetan Studies, History of Science, Tibet, Tibetan Literature, and 10 moreSocial History of Medicine, British medical history, Syphilis, History of Venereal Disease, Tibetan Medicine, Medical History, Mercury toxicity, Tibetan History, Mercury studies in environmental and human health, and Mercury Poisoning
After living and studying in India for a decade, I enrolled in the Master’s course in Medical Anthropology at Oxford in 2002 as one of twelve students from five countries. Studying at Oxford was such an inspiring experience that I... more
After living and studying in India for a decade, I enrolled in the Master’s course in Medical Anthropology at Oxford in 2002 as one of twelve students from five countries. Studying at Oxford was such an inspiring experience that I continued
with a D.Phil. in Social Anthropology, researching longevity practices and concepts of the life-span in Tibetan societies in India (Gerke 2012a). I then taught at three universities in the USA and Germany, and pursued a post-doc at the
Humboldt University, Berlin, on detoxification methods in Tibetan pharmacology and on how ideas of toxicity are translated cross-culturally (2011-2015). Critical course discussions that we had at Oxford on efficacy made me look at issues of safety and helped me think anthropologically about toxicity. How can we study toxic ingredients of medicines with research methods specific to anthropology in the absence of laboratories and biomedical testing tools? Looking at changing anthropological approaches to efficacy and safety are my entry points for this article, which provides some of the groundwork necessary to address questions of how Tibetan doctors translate their ideas of toxicity and detoxification to a Western audience.
with a D.Phil. in Social Anthropology, researching longevity practices and concepts of the life-span in Tibetan societies in India (Gerke 2012a). I then taught at three universities in the USA and Germany, and pursued a post-doc at the
Humboldt University, Berlin, on detoxification methods in Tibetan pharmacology and on how ideas of toxicity are translated cross-culturally (2011-2015). Critical course discussions that we had at Oxford on efficacy made me look at issues of safety and helped me think anthropologically about toxicity. How can we study toxic ingredients of medicines with research methods specific to anthropology in the absence of laboratories and biomedical testing tools? Looking at changing anthropological approaches to efficacy and safety are my entry points for this article, which provides some of the groundwork necessary to address questions of how Tibetan doctors translate their ideas of toxicity and detoxification to a Western audience.
Research Interests:
No other compound in Tibetan medical pharmacology seems to be as fascinating, controversial, and enigmatic as tsotel (btso thal, lit. ‘cooked ash’), the processed mercury sulphide ash that provides the base material of many of the popular... more
No other compound in Tibetan medical pharmacology seems to be as fascinating, controversial, and enigmatic as tsotel (btso thal, lit. ‘cooked ash’), the processed mercury sulphide ash that provides the base material of many of the popular Tibetan ‘precious pills’ (rin chen ril bu). The compound contains—apart from numerous herbs and other ingredients—eight metals and eight rock components. Tsotel practices, which can be
traced back to the thirteenth century in Tibet, are considered the pinnacle of Tibetan pharmacology. The commercial value of tsotel gives it a strong economic and social life
of its own. This paper analyses the social life of tsotel from an anthropological perspective and sketches key aspects of tsotel’s biography, which in one way or the other are linked to medical, political, and religious perceptions of mercury: tsotel events with their political and institutional agendas; the value of tsotel as a medical, religious, and political commodity; safety and toxicity debates; and tsotel’s religious and political efficacy. I argue that the social life of tsotel is increasingly linked to perceptions of toxicity and safety because of its chief ingredient, mercury, being contested in a globalised arena of tightened international regulations as well as the recent attention given to heavy metal
toxicity issues in Asian medicines. Also, several fundamental misconceptions of the substance of mercury itself, its processed form of mercury sulphide, and of the contamination of herbal ingredients with heavy metals will be highlighted. Examples are
based on ethnographic fieldwork with Tibetan medical practitioners and pharmacologists in India and Nepal.
traced back to the thirteenth century in Tibet, are considered the pinnacle of Tibetan pharmacology. The commercial value of tsotel gives it a strong economic and social life
of its own. This paper analyses the social life of tsotel from an anthropological perspective and sketches key aspects of tsotel’s biography, which in one way or the other are linked to medical, political, and religious perceptions of mercury: tsotel events with their political and institutional agendas; the value of tsotel as a medical, religious, and political commodity; safety and toxicity debates; and tsotel’s religious and political efficacy. I argue that the social life of tsotel is increasingly linked to perceptions of toxicity and safety because of its chief ingredient, mercury, being contested in a globalised arena of tightened international regulations as well as the recent attention given to heavy metal
toxicity issues in Asian medicines. Also, several fundamental misconceptions of the substance of mercury itself, its processed form of mercury sulphide, and of the contamination of herbal ingredients with heavy metals will be highlighted. Examples are
based on ethnographic fieldwork with Tibetan medical practitioners and pharmacologists in India and Nepal.
Research Interests:
Medical Anthropology, History of Ideas, Tibetan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, History of Science, and 8 moreAlchemy, Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Medicine, Mercury toxicity, Tibetan History, Mercury studies in environmental and human health, Mercury Poisoning, and Pharmaceutical Anthropology
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Gerke, B. 2001. "The Authorship of the Tibetan Medical Treatise Cha lag bco brgyad (Twelfth Century AD) and a Description of its Historical Background," in Traditional South Asian Medicine, formerly Journal of the European Ayurvedic... more
Gerke, B. 2001. "The Authorship of the Tibetan Medical Treatise Cha lag bco brgyad (Twelfth Century AD) and a Description of its Historical Background," in Traditional South Asian Medicine, formerly Journal of the European Ayurvedic Society, Vol. 6, vol. 27 - 50. Edited by R. P. Das and R. E. Emmerick. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
Research Interests:
This chapter explores how the pharmaceuticalization of Sowa Rigpa has affected the material representations of Tibetan precious pills (rin chen ril bu). With the example of a translated leaflet of the precious pill “Jikmé’s Old... more
This chapter explores how the pharmaceuticalization of Sowa Rigpa has affected the material representations of Tibetan precious pills (rin chen ril bu). With the example of a translated leaflet of the precious pill “Jikmé’s Old Turquoise-70” (’jigs med g.yu rnying bdun cu), made in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), I analyze how the current trend towards an expanding pharmaceuticalization of precious pills reflects in their material representation and specific instructions offered in bi- or tri-lingual leaflets. I show that in the PRC Sowa Rigpa’s specific terminology and disease etiologies are largely sidelined while catering to a Chinese-speaking patient and consumer clientele, whereas in India we find elements from Buddhism and Tibetan identity integrated in the presentation and packaging of precious pills. Each serves the commodification of precious pills, but in different ways. I also highlight how the commodification and over-the-counter sales of precious pills, found largely in the PRC but also at certain clinics in India, might easily lead to their misuse.
Gerke, Barbara. 2019. "Material Presentations and Cultural Drug Translations of Contemporary Tibetan Precious Pills." In Knowledge and Context in the Tibetan Medical Tradition. PIATS 2016: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bergen, 2016, edited by William McGrath, 337-367. Leiden: Brill.
Gerke, Barbara. 2019. "Material Presentations and Cultural Drug Translations of Contemporary Tibetan Precious Pills." In Knowledge and Context in the Tibetan Medical Tradition. PIATS 2016: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bergen, 2016, edited by William McGrath, 337-367. Leiden: Brill.
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara. 2014. "The Art of Tibetan Medical Practice." In Bodies in Balance - The Art of Tibetan Medicine, edited by Theresia Hofer, 16-31. The Rubin Museum of Art, New York in association with University of Washington Press,... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2014. "The Art of Tibetan Medical Practice." In Bodies in Balance - The Art of Tibetan Medicine, edited by Theresia Hofer, 16-31. The Rubin Museum of Art, New York in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle and London.
Research Interests:
The last of the 156 chapters of the Four Treatises, which is presented here, is a fitting conclusion to this poetic root text of Tibetan medicine said to date back to the twelfth century. It is, however, not called “Conclusion” (as the... more
The last of the 156 chapters of the Four Treatises, which is presented here, is a fitting conclusion to this poetic root text of Tibetan medicine said to date back to the twelfth century. It is, however, not called “Conclusion” (as the chapter before it), but rather “Entrustment,” and it begins with a fundamental question of doubt. The following question probably arises in the mind of any medical practitioner at some point: What is the purpose of possessing the knowledge of healing and being a physician if treatments can fail and people still die?
Research Interests:
The chapter introduced and translated here describes the processing and purification of two types of Precious Pills: the Precious Cold Compound, (Rinchen Drangjor), and the Precious Hot Compound (Rinchen Tsajor).
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara. 2016. "Buddhist Healing and Taming in Tibet." In The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, edited by Michael Jerryson, 576-590. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This chapter centers on Tibetan Buddhist patterns and... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2016. "Buddhist Healing and Taming in Tibet." In The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, edited by Michael Jerryson, 576-590. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This chapter centers on Tibetan Buddhist patterns and themes of healing and addresses the inter-relationship of medicine and religion in the practice of Tibetan medicine, also called Sowa Rigpa (gso ba rig pa), the “science of healing,” and how Buddhist rituals are employed to enhance the potency of medicines and to protect the pharmacy and the people working in it from accidents and obstacles during difficult manufacturing processes. Examples focus on the refinement of mercury in mercury sulphide ash for use in “precious pills” (rin chen ril bu). The chapter establishes an argument for a parallel between Buddhist ideas of “taming” demons into becoming protectors of the religious teachings and the pharmacological transformation of poisonous substances, especially the pharmacological practices of “taming” mercury into a potent elixir, and what this tells us about Tibetan medical approaches to what is considered “beneficial” and “harmful.”
This chapter centers on Tibetan Buddhist patterns and themes of healing and addresses the inter-relationship of medicine and religion in the practice of Tibetan medicine, also called Sowa Rigpa (gso ba rig pa), the “science of healing,” and how Buddhist rituals are employed to enhance the potency of medicines and to protect the pharmacy and the people working in it from accidents and obstacles during difficult manufacturing processes. Examples focus on the refinement of mercury in mercury sulphide ash for use in “precious pills” (rin chen ril bu). The chapter establishes an argument for a parallel between Buddhist ideas of “taming” demons into becoming protectors of the religious teachings and the pharmacological transformation of poisonous substances, especially the pharmacological practices of “taming” mercury into a potent elixir, and what this tells us about Tibetan medical approaches to what is considered “beneficial” and “harmful.”
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara. 2016. "When ngülchu is not mercury: Tibetan taxonomies of metals." In Soulless Matter, Seats of Energy. Metals, Gems and Minerals in South Asian Religions and Culture, edited by Fabrizio Ferrari and Thomas Dähnhardt,... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2016. "When ngülchu is not mercury: Tibetan taxonomies of metals." In Soulless Matter, Seats of Energy. Metals, Gems and Minerals in South Asian Religions and Culture, edited by Fabrizio Ferrari and Thomas Dähnhardt, 116-140. Sheffield and Bristol: Equinox.
Research Interests:
Systematics (Taxonomy), Medical Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, History of Science, History Of Medicine In South Asia, and 5 moreSocial History of Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, The History of Ancient and Medieval Pharmacy/materia Medica, History of pharmacy, and Ethno medicine and Materia Medica
unedited proofs; page numbers do not correspond to final publication. Gerke, Barbara. 2015. "Of Matas, Jhakris, and other Healers: Fieldnotes on a Healing Event in Kalimpong, India." In Tibetan & Himalayan Healing. An Anthology for... more
unedited proofs; page numbers do not correspond to final publication.
Gerke, Barbara. 2015. "Of Matas, Jhakris, and other Healers: Fieldnotes on a Healing Event in Kalimpong, India." In Tibetan & Himalayan Healing. An Anthology for Anthony Aris, edited by Charles Ramble and Ulrike Roesler, 231-248. Kathmandu: Vajra Publications.
Gerke, Barbara. 2015. "Of Matas, Jhakris, and other Healers: Fieldnotes on a Healing Event in Kalimpong, India." In Tibetan & Himalayan Healing. An Anthology for Anthony Aris, edited by Charles Ramble and Ulrike Roesler, 231-248. Kathmandu: Vajra Publications.
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara. 2013. "On the ‘Subtle Body’ and ‘Circulation’ in Tibetan Medicine." In Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body, edited by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston, 83-99. London and New York:... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2013. "On the ‘Subtle Body’ and ‘Circulation’ in Tibetan Medicine." In Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body, edited by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston, 83-99. London and New York: Routledge.
Research Interests:
Gerke, Barbara. 2012. "Introduction: Challenges of Translating Tibetan Medical Texts and Medical Histories." In Wurzeltantra und Tantra der Erklärungen aus "Die Vier Tantra der Tibetischen Medizin", edited by Florian Ploberger, 17-29.... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2012. "Introduction: Challenges of Translating Tibetan Medical Texts and Medical Histories." In Wurzeltantra und Tantra der Erklärungen aus "Die Vier Tantra der Tibetischen Medizin", edited by Florian Ploberger, 17-29. Schiedlberg, Austria: Bacopa Verlag.
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Gerke, Barbara. 2011. "Correlating biomedical and Tibetan medical terms in amchi medical practice." In Medicine Between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds, edited by Vincanne Adams, Mona Schrempf and Sienna Radha Craig,... more
Gerke, Barbara. 2011. "Correlating biomedical and Tibetan medical terms in amchi medical practice." In Medicine Between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds, edited by Vincanne Adams, Mona Schrempf and Sienna Radha Craig, 127-152. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.
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Gerke, B. 2010. "The Multivocality of Ritual Experiences: Long-Life Empowerments among Tibetan Communities in the Darjeeling Hills, India," in "The Varieties of Ritual Experience," section IV of “Ritual Dynamics and the Science of... more
Gerke, B. 2010. "The Multivocality of Ritual Experiences: Long-Life Empowerments among Tibetan Communities in the Darjeeling Hills, India," in "The Varieties of Ritual Experience," section IV of “Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Volume II - Body, Performance, Agency, and Experience." (eds. Axel Michaels et al.). Edited by J. Weinhold and G. Samuel, pp. 423-41. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
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Gerke, B. 2010. "Tibetan treatment choices in the context of medical pluralism in the Darjeeling Hills," in Studies of Medical Pluralism in Tibetan History and Society. PIATS 2006: Proceedings of the 11th Seminar of the International... more
Gerke, B. 2010. "Tibetan treatment choices in the context of medical pluralism in the Darjeeling Hills," in Studies of Medical Pluralism in Tibetan History and Society. PIATS 2006: Proceedings of the 11th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Königswinter 2006. Edited by S. Craig, M. Cuomu, F. Garrett, and M. Schrempf, pp. 337-76. Andiast, Switzerland: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH.
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Gerke, B. 2007. "Engaging the subtle body: Re-approaching bla rituals among Himalayan Tibetan societies," in Soundings in Tibetan Medicine. Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. PIATS 2003: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 10th... more
Gerke, B. 2007. "Engaging the subtle body: Re-approaching bla rituals among Himalayan Tibetan societies," in Soundings in Tibetan Medicine. Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. PIATS 2003: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 10th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford 2003. Edited by M. Schrempf, pp. 191-212. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
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Gerke, Barbara. 2019. Book review: Tibetan Medicine, Buddhism and Psychiatry: Mental Health and Healing in a Tibetan Exile Community, written by Susannah Deane. Asian Medicine 15 (1):197-199. doi: 10.1163/15734218-12341467.
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Gerke, Barbara. 2019. "Review. Theresia Hofer, Medicine and Memory in Tibet: Amchi Physicians in an Age of Reform." Asian Ethnology no. 78 (1): 256-258. https://asianethnology.org/downloads/ae/pdf/AsianEthnology-2204.pdf.
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Review of: Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa. 2014. The Social Life of Tibetan Biography: Textuality, Community, and Authority in the Lineage of Tokden Shakya Shri. Lexington Books. 221 pp. 6 figures, index. Series "Studies in Modern Tibetan... more
Review of: Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa. 2014. The Social Life of
Tibetan Biography: Textuality, Community, and Authority in the Lineage of Tokden Shakya Shri. Lexington Books. 221 pp. 6 figures, index. Series "Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture." ISBN 978-0-73916519-5 (hardcover, 81USD).
The book under review is a part of Lexington Books' series "Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture." The author, Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, has a background in Religious Studies and researched the interrelationships between textual biography and social community networks of the Tibetan Buddhist lineage holder and Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen master, Tokden Shakya Shri (1853–1919) from Latokh, which at the time was a kingdom and one of five polities in Kham, Eastern Tibet, and today is in Chamdo County in the Tibet Autonomous Region. She interviewed contemporary students and family of Shakya Shri as well as translated excerpts from the master's biography, the Garland of Flowers. The Tibetan text is not appended, but interested readers can refer to the complete translation of the
Garland of Flowers by Elio Guarisco (2009). An old black and white photo of the master, as well as photos of his community in Nepal and the stupas his followers helped to renovate, are included in the book. A map showing the regions of Shakya Shri's residences and spiritual influence would have been useful. ...
Tibetan Biography: Textuality, Community, and Authority in the Lineage of Tokden Shakya Shri. Lexington Books. 221 pp. 6 figures, index. Series "Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture." ISBN 978-0-73916519-5 (hardcover, 81USD).
The book under review is a part of Lexington Books' series "Studies in Modern Tibetan Culture." The author, Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, has a background in Religious Studies and researched the interrelationships between textual biography and social community networks of the Tibetan Buddhist lineage holder and Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen master, Tokden Shakya Shri (1853–1919) from Latokh, which at the time was a kingdom and one of five polities in Kham, Eastern Tibet, and today is in Chamdo County in the Tibet Autonomous Region. She interviewed contemporary students and family of Shakya Shri as well as translated excerpts from the master's biography, the Garland of Flowers. The Tibetan text is not appended, but interested readers can refer to the complete translation of the
Garland of Flowers by Elio Guarisco (2009). An old black and white photo of the master, as well as photos of his community in Nepal and the stupas his followers helped to renovate, are included in the book. A map showing the regions of Shakya Shri's residences and spiritual influence would have been useful. ...
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Gerke, Barbara. "Review of Frances Garrett, 'Religion, Medicine and the Human Embryo in Tibet.' London/New York, Routledge 2008.". Traditional South Asian Medicine 9 (2017): 248-53.
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Gerke, Barbara. 2018. Review of “The Patient Multiple: An Ethnography of Healthcare and Decision Making in Bhutan.” by Jonathan Taee, 2017. Anthropos no. 113:761-762.
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Gerke, B. 2016. Review of ' Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet' by Janet Gyatso. Himalaya 36 (1):196-198.
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Gerke, Barbara. 2016. Review: The social life of Tibetan biography. Asian Highlands Perspective 40:395-402.
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Poster for the Workshop: "Pandemics, Epidemics, Academics. Projects on the medical traditions in South Asia and Tibet" to be held on June 23, 2023 at the ISTB, Vienna, and online. More details:... more
Poster for the Workshop: "Pandemics, Epidemics, Academics. Projects on the medical traditions in South Asia and Tibet" to be held on June 23, 2023 at the ISTB, Vienna, and online. More details: https://stb.univie.ac.at/news-events/detail/news/pandemics-epidemics-academics-projects-on-the-medical-traditions-in-south-asia-and-tibet/