RT Book
T1 Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet
A1 Gyatso, Janet 1949-
LA English
PP New York, NY
PB Columbia University Press
YR 2015
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/834636727
AB Critically exploring medical thought in a cultural milieu with no discernible influence from the European Enlightenment, Being Human reveals an otherwise unnoticed intersection of early modern sensibilities and religious values in traditional Tibetan medicine. It further studies the adaptation of Buddhist concepts and values to medical concerns and suggests important dimensions of Buddhism's role in the development of Asian and global civilization.Through its unique focus and sophisticated reading of source materials, Being Human adds a crucial chapter in the larger historiography of science and religion. The book opens with the bold achievements in Tibetan medical illustration, commentary, and institution building during the period of the Fifth Dalai Lama and his regent, Desi Sangye Gyatso, then looks back to the work of earlier thinkers, tracing a strategically astute dialectic between scriptural and empirical authority on questions of history and the nature of human anatomy. It follows key differences between medicine and Buddhism in attitudes toward gender and sex and the moral character of the physician, who had to serve both the patient's and the practitioner's well-being. Being Human ultimately finds that Tibetan medical scholars absorbed ethical and epistemological categories from Buddhism yet shied away from ideal systems and absolutes, instead embracing the imperfectability of the human condition.
AB Daud Ali, University of Pennsylvania:Janet Gyatso's book is an extraordinarily sophisticated presentation of the history of Tibetan Buddhist medical practice from the inside out--an account that is deeply grounded in Tibetan language sources while never losing sight of key analytical, historical, and methodological questions pertinent to recent debates in the history of medicine and Buddhist studies, not to mention wider studies in the history of culture and literature in South Asia and beyond. This book will be a landmark in the study of South Asian medical traditions. What distinguishes it from other studies is its complexity of vision. It deftly traces the surprising entanglements of Buddhist doctrine, state patronage, and social power with both scholastic medical traditions and medical practitioners on the ground to give us a historical picture that is compellingly nuanced and refreshingly open--clearing the path for future research. Steven Collins, University of Chicago:This book is a fascinating, lucid, and profound exploration of the history in Tibet of the mentality and practices, both empirical and discursive, of probative medicine within the context of Buddhist civilization, a concept introduced and used as a more broad category than that of a 'Buddhism' concerned primarily with ideals of human perfection and supernatural realms. Moving deftly between fine-grained analysis of textual and visual materials from the seventh to seventeenth centuries and an open-ended discussion of large-scale historical and cultural issues, the book makes a significant contribution not only to Tibetan and Buddhist studies but also to current debates on the h
OP 544
CN BQ7584
SN 978-0-231-53832-9
K1 Buddhism : Tibet Region : History
K1 Medicine : Religious aspects : Buddhism
K1 Medicine, Tibetan : History
K1 Buddhism
K1 Medicine
K1 Andere Religionen
K1 Medicine, Tibetan
K1 religion in Africa
K1 Religion, Jewish Studies, Theology
K1 Religion
K1 RELIGION / Buddhism / Tibetan
K1 MEDICAL / History
K1 PHILOSOPHY / Eastern / General
K1 PHILOSOPHY / Buddhist
K1 RELIGION / Buddhism / History
K1 RELIGION / Buddhism / Theravada
K1 HISTORY / Asia / China
K1 RELIGION / Religion & Science
K1 SCIENCE / History
K1 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
DO 10.7312/gyat16496