medicine between science and religion chapter1a

8/18/2019 Medicine Between Science and Religion Chapter1a

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Between Science and Religion:Focusing on Tibetan MedicineOne might ask why we have chosen in this volume to focus on what, at rstglance, might seem like only one cultural system of knowledge and practiceand its relation to and with biomedicine. We could answer such a question

in two ways. First, we might reiterate that neither Tibetan medicine norbiomedicine are complete or uniform categories they articulate in diverseways across geographic and epistemological spaces. !econd, although anedited volume of this nature could have engaged with several so"called#sian medical systems, we have chosen to focus on Tibetan medicine forseveral reasons. $rimarily we believe that an intellectual commitment toone already diverse set of medical, social and scienti c practices across awide geographic and epistemological terrain encourages a certain kind of theoretical depth that is not possible when engaging in a more comparativee%ercise & not only between biomedicine and its 'others( but also acrossdi)erent non"Western medical systems. Furthermore, Tibetan medicine isnot only known as a scholarly medical tradition *see +ates -- / with manycenturies of technological, clinical and pharmacological innovations it alsosurvives today as a comple% medical resource across many #sian nations &from 0ndia and +hutan to 1ongolia, 2hina, +uryatia, 3ussia & as well as inWestern 4urope and the #mericas. Furthermore, as each chapter illustrates,

Tibetan medicine(s own stories about its engagement with both other Tibetan healing traditions and Western empirical traditions is quite richand worth e%ploring for a comparison with structurally similar #sianmedical transformations in the future.

Thus, by focusing solely on Tibetan medicine, we o)er an interestingglimpse into the comple%ities of working through an analytical frameworkthat distinguishes 'religion( from 'science(, despite the heuristic use of theseterms in the title. For the purpose of this e%ploration, Tibetan medicineincludes belief in spirits and protective mantra *!chrempf, in this volume/ and

the e5cacy of e%orcism and empowerment rituals *2raig, in this volume/ tothe practices of ascertaining quality of life inventories by way of biochemicalstress tests, the absorption of Tibetan medicine in animal model laboratoryresearch *#dams et al., in this volume/, and the ethical posturing of e%ilephysicians for whom medicine becomes a key to saving Tibetan culture andbene tting the world *6loos, in this volume/. 7We suggest that the connectionsbetween these practices of medicine do not simply cohere around thosetheories of the nyepa or the ' ve elements(, although these are at somefundamental level connected to all of the practices we describe in the followingchapters. 3ather, we suggest that these diverse practices coalesce around whatwe call a 'morally charged cosmology(, which is not simply +uddhist and yetis deeply rooted in Tibetan cultural concepts. #gain, we are not claiming thatother medical traditions are without a strong ethics or moral sensibility, butrather that our attention is on the particular contours of that which fallbetween religion and science, which emerge as rich, if problematic, categoriesin the case of Tibetan medicine. The chapters in this volume e%plore in moredetail what we mean by such a morally charged cosmology, and what goesinto claims that Tibetan medicine is, in fact, situated between religion andscience. We also e%plore the complications of such a claim. For e%ample, wenote again that even translating the phrase sowa rigpa as 'science of healing(could appear problematic today because it recalls the distinction betweenreligion and science. +ut, we argue, the translation would not necessarily be aproblem for a Tibetan practitioner or a patient, or at least not in the same way



as it would be for basic scientists or biomedical practitioners.0t is also important to remember the powerful role played by 'religion(within Tibetan cultural life. 0n this te%t, 'religion( encompasses everythingfrom what might be referred to as folk beliefs and practices to the highlyliturgical and literary aspects of monastic +uddhism in Tibetan society, aswell as to other Tibetan religious traditions such as +on. For these reasons,

we prefer the phrase 'morally"charged cosmology( to that of 'Tibetan+uddhism(. 8iven the underlying, though historically and conte%tuallychanging, connections between Tibetan religious and medical pra%is, thevery nature of this work requires an engagement with, and areconsideration of, the facile religion9science dichotomy. The question of how religious this makes Tibetan medical practices themselves, however, isnot easy to answer, and is one taken up by a number of the contributors tothis volume.0ndeed, despite the large role played by +uddhism in Tibetan medicaltheory, particularly since the monastic institutionali:ation of Tibetanmedicine from its inception and the culmination of this through thefounding of the 2hakpori 0nstitute in 7-7, it would be wrong to consider

Tibetan medical theory to be purely religious, or purely +uddhist. ;owever,one might refer to it as uniquely 'Tibetan( in the sense that it is re"producedin a culturally Tibetan environment and encompasses the breadth andrange of various cultural and religious orientations found within that largercategory and label. 0t is important to also call attention to the overridingpresence and signi cance of the Gyushi and its commentaries for at least thelast three centuries. 1any te%ts have played an important role in theshaping of Tibetan medicine in the Tibetan cultural world. +ut the Gyushihas become increasingly taken as foundational for the past centuries, evenmore so today. The debate over this te%t(s religious versus scienti c contentis already large and comple%. !imilarly, the practices of biomedical science& particularly at sites, both historic and geographic, where these twosystems of knowledge have been integrating & has created a self"re<e%ivity

with regard to the de nition of 'science( in ways that reveal an e%pandingdiscourse about the ways in which new medical techniques and practicesaccompanying moderni:ation need to accommodate Tibetan medical waysof knowing. This, we argue, is, re<ective of how medicine on Tibetangrounds is operating between religious and scienti c epistemologies, atleast as they are known to most Western scholars, and informs them both.0n this sense, the type of clear epistemological and political borderbetween 'science( and 'religion( that is often viewed as a Western materialist*and, signi cantly, socialist 2hinese/ ideal is complicated in the Tibetancase. This fact creates both problems and opportunities & points of convergence and dis=uncture & as Tibetan medicine comes into dialoguewith biomedicine in particular. 0ndeed, there is a history to this. 1ostsigni cantly, 'religious( elements of sowa rigpa , and inquiries into practicesof medical pluralism on Tibetan grounds more generally, are capable of revealing dynamics in which empiricism demurs to politici:ed andculturally embedded visions of 'science(. #s the chapters in this volumeillustrate, boundaries between the ideological domains of 'religion( and'science(, as they are enacted through medical practice, are formed forreasons that have much to do with politics, nation building, economics,and other regimes of power and comparatively less to do with questions of epistemology, e5cacy and empiricism.0t is also important to remember that the religious foundations of

Tibetan medicine are by no means restricted to monastic settings. There are



two great traditions of pedagogy in Tibetan medicine> institutional*including monastic settings and later more seculari:ed institutions such asthe 1entsikhang/, and lineage"based *in which 'lineage( sometimes refersto religious lineage, family9patrilineage and9or teacher9student lineage/.#nd yet numerous healers speciali:e solely in ritual divination, e%orcismsor amulet provision, and claim to know little about making and practicing

'medicine( * men / in a broader sense. Others are skilled in the arts of compounding medicines or diagnosis but have never learned to performritual healings requiring communications with spirit beings. 0n addition,many ritual specialists can be found outside of the monastic conte%t .Ngagpa , for e%ample, are a class of ritual specialists often translated as'tantric householder priest( who, despite e%isting outside of monasticsettings, have received transmissions * lung / and initiations * wang / fromteachers, sometimes including those who speciali:e in sowa rigpa, andtherefore have the ability to perform and prescribe both 'medical( and'religious( therapies. ?espite the fact that these practitioners are di)erentlyskilled, they are uni ed by their common world"view of a morally chargedcosmology. 4ven those who compound medicines and who know no ritualsand have no formal +uddhist training presume that the ve elements thatmake up the cosmos, as well as the astrological guides used to understandthe potencies of ingredients on the basis of these elements, are real andhave internali:ed this cosmology.One also glimpses the coherence of this cosmology among patients. #moral cosmology is not =ust theoretical> it is visible in how people inculturally Tibetan conte%ts can move throughout the world & in how theyeat, how they behave, and the assumptions that their actions produce goodor bad health. @et it is not only Tibetans who come into this cosmologicalsphere, although according to diverse conte%ts it might be controlled byvery di)erent agents, such as local spirits aAicting illness or biochemicalgerms. 2ancer patients in the B.!. learning Tibetan meditation, the 2hineselaboratory chemist who learns how to evaluate the 'heat( in a medicinal

ingredient, or a Tibetan patient who trusts 0Cs as 'cooling( agents against a'hot( disorder & all are in contact with, and engaging with, a moralcosmology that comes from Tibet and that circulates in and through

Tibetan medicine.

medicine between science and religion chapter1a

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