Universität Wien

142056 VO Medicine/toxin paradigms in Tibetan medical and Buddhist ritual literature (12th-18th cent.) (2022W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes

Mi 13:30-15:30, SR 1 Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde (Universitätscampus, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7, 1090 Wien), 5.10.-14.12.

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

**Feel free to email Professor Tidwell for any questions about the course at tawni.tidwell@gmail.com.

The goal of this lecture-based course is to present key paradigms related to understandings of medicinal and toxic substances in Tibetan medicine and Buddhist ritual through paradigms of transforming toxins into medicines in the context of precious pills and the Great Mercury Accomplishment (tsotel), as well as routine detoxification processes in Tibetan pharmacology. The course will survey relevant Tibetan medical and Buddhist ritual literature (12th-18th cent.) as well as current clinical practices where such substances are used, as well as related contemporary research. We will analyze concepts of potency, active/dynamic substances, bioavailability, and the achievement of transformation in mind/body for both therapeutic and teleological aims. Tibetan pharmacology will be examined for clinical, ritual, and contemplative/yogic contexts. The class will also explore differential and synergistic understandings of potency in the Tibetan medical context compared to that of the Euroamerican biomedical context.

Readings across secondary literature related to Tibetan medicine, its medicine-compounding tradition called menjor, and related Buddhist literature on ritual substances will allow for deeper understandings of the possibilities and challenges in using toxic substances for therapeutic benefit as well as the cultural practices in protecting the knowledge from ill intent. Selected chapters from the English translation of the Tibetan medical classic, Four Tantras (rGyud bzhi), compiled in the 12th century by g.Yu thog yon tan mgon po will allow students to explore the poetic, metaphoric stanzas that give insight to understanding Tibetan pharmacology and its approach to organizing complexities of naturalistic phenomenological dynamics through distinct methods. Commentarial contributions from the 14th through 18th centuries will also be discussed in class.

By the end of the class, students will gain a knowledge of what makes this traditional Asian medical system unique in its medicine-compounding, alchemical and ritualistic approaches as distinct from but conversant with contemporary biomedicine.

Knowledge of Tibetan is helpful but not essential. Materials will be circulated beforehand.

Class Sessions & Syllabus Outline — Wednesdays, 13:30-15:30 (11 sessions)
• Wed, Oct 5 Introduction to Tibetan Medicine & paradigms of health & illness
• Wed, Oct 12 Menjor as Tibetan Pharmacology
• Wed, Oct 19 The Knowledge of Healing (documentary), Franz Reichle (2004)
• Wed, Oct 26 Holiday; no class -- rescheduled below
• Wed, Nov 2 Holiday; no class -- rescheduled below
• Wed, Nov 9 Defining pathogen and toxin; medicine and poison — the case of tsotel
• Mon, Nov 14 14:45-16:45 (rescheduled from holiday) Potency regimes — dietary, medicinal and ritual/contemplative
• Wed, Nov 16 Revisiting tsotel as crown ornament of Tibetan menjor potency
• Fri, Nov 18 10:30-12:30 (rescheduled from holiday) Understanding formula logics
• Wed, Nov 23 Case study: medicines in treating cancer, blood, and chuser disorders
• Wed, Nov 30 Chülen: Rejuvenation therapies in the practice context for extending life
• Wed, Dec 7 Mendrup: Medicine accomplishment practice
• Wed, Dec 14 Potency, medicine, and toxins in ritual contexts

Assessment and permitted materials

Weekly lectures and texts assigned; 1 final written exam on presented lectures and assigned readings.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Grading is based on a written exam at the end of the semester (25 January 2023, 13:30-15:30). Further dates will be announced if necessary

Examination topics

Examination topics are the content of lectures and the assigned readings.

Reading list

Readings will include excerpts from the following readings (not the entire texts), in addition to the Tibetan source texts:
• English/German Translation of the Four Tantras (aka, Four Medical Treatises) (Men-Tsee-Khang/Florian Ploberger), G.yu thog yon tan mgon po. Bdud rtsi snying po yan lag brgyad pa gsang ba man ngag gi rgyud [The Secret Quintessential Instructions on the Eight Branches of the Ambrosia Essence Tantra], 12th century.
• Clifford, Terry. 1984. Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry.
• Pasang Yonten Arya. 2022. New Light on Tibetan Medicine.
• Reichle, Franz. 2004. The Knowledge of Healing (documentary. Icarus.
• Norbu, Tsering. Encyclopedia of Myriad Herbs: Medicinal Herbs in Tibetan Medical Tradition. Vol. 1 Trans. Thinley Choephel. Men-Tsee-Khang Publications.
• Mingji Cuomu. 2020. "Covid-19 from Tibetan Medical and Cultural Perspectives: A Report from Lhasa." Hot Spots, Fieldsights, June 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/covid-19-from-tibetan-medical-and-cultural-perspectives-a-report-from-lhasa.
• Tidwell, Tawni and James Nettles. 2019. "Conceptions of Potency, Purity, and Synergy-by-Design: Toward developing a Sowa Rigpa medical theory-based approach to pharmaceutical research." HIMALAYA 39(1): 129-149.
• Gerke, Barbara 2021. “The Pharmaceutical Nexus of Mercury Practices.” In Taming the Poisonous: Mercury, Toxicity, and Safety in Tibetan Medical Practice. Heidelberg University Publishing: 85-131.
• Glover, Denise. 2010. “Classes in the Classics: Historical changes in plant classification in two Tibetan medical texts.” In Studies of Medical Pluralism in Tibetan History and Society. Ed. by Craig, Cuomu, Garrett and Schrempf. International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.
• Glover, Denise. 2018. “Classification as Narrative: A Renewed Perspective on a Longstanding Topic in Ethnobiology.” Journal of Ethnobiology 38(1): 105-123.
• Gerke, Barbara. 2013. “The Social Life of Tsotel: Processing Mercury in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine.” Asian Medicine 8: 120-152. (32pp)
• Van der Valk. 2019. “Garuda 5 (khyung lnga): Ecologies of Potency and the Poison-Medicine Spectrum of Sowa Rigpa’s Renowned ‘Black Aconite’ Formula.” In Approaching Potent Substances in Medicine and Ritual across Asia. HIMALAYA 39(1)
• Schwabl & Van der Valk. 2019. “Challenging the Biomedical Notion of ‘Active Substance’: The Botanical Plasticity of Tibetan Medical Formulas.” In Approaching Potent Substances in Medicine and Ritual across Asia. HIMALAYA 39(1)
• Bauer-Wu et al. 2014. “Tibetan Medicine for Cancer: An Overview and Review of Case Studies,” Journal of Integrative Cancer Therapies. September 2014:1-11.
• Tidwell, Tawni. 2019. “Collapsing Cancer: An hermeneutical and praxis-based comparative analysis of cancer and Tibetan medical etiological categories.” In Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine, ed. by William McGrath. Brill Publishers: 140-196.
• Gerke, Barbara. 2012. ‘Treating the Aged’ and ‘Maintaining Health’: Locating bcud len practices in the Four Medical Tantras.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 35 (1/2): 329–362.
• Cantwell, Cathy. 2017. “Reflections on Rasāyana, Bcud Len and Related Practices in Nyingma (Rnying ma) Tantric Ritual.” In Special Issue Transmutations: Rejuvenation, Longevity, and Immortality Practices in South and Inner Asia. Ed. by Wujastyk, Newcombe, and Barois. History of Science in South Asia 5.2: 181-203.
• Gerke, Barbara. 2017. “Tibetan Precious Pills as Therapeutics and Rejuvenating Longevity Tonics.” In Special Issue Transmutations: Rejuvenation, Longevity, and Immortality Practices in South and Inner Asia. Ed. by Wujastyk, Newcombe, and Barois. History of Science in South Asia 5.2: 234-264.
• Cantwell, Cathy. 2015. The Medicinal Accomplishment (sman sgrub) practice in the Dudjom Meteoric Iron Razor (gnam lcags spu gri) tradition: Reflections on the ritual and meditative practice at a monastery in Southern Bhutan. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist

Association in the course directory

BA9, EC3-2

Last modified: Mo 20.02.2023 10:30