Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520273245)

Tibetan medicine has come to represent multiple and sometimes conflicting agendas. On the one hand it must retain a sense of cultural authenticity and a connection to Tibetan Buddhism; on the other it must prove efficacious and safe according to biomedical standards. Recently, Tibetan medicine has found a place within the multibillion-dollar market for complementary, traditional, and herbal medicines as people around the world seek alternative paths to wellness. Healing Elements explores how Tibetan medicine circulates through diverse settings in Nepal, China, and beyond as commercial goods and gifts, and as target therapies and panacea for biophysical and psychosocial ills. Through an exploration of efficacy - what does it mean to say Tibetan medicine "works"? - this book illustrates a bio-politics of traditional medicine and the meaningful, if contested, translations of science and healing that occur across distinct social ecologies.





Author: Sienna R. Craig
ISBN-10: 0520273249
ISBN-13: 9780520273245
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 08/22/2012
Pages: 344
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2013