Therapeutic Rejuvenation Processes and Pharmacological Detoxification Methods in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine in India and Nepal: A Critical Analysis of Cultural Translations through Ethnographic Case Studies and Classical Medical Texts on Vitality, Toxicity, and Aging

• Applicant: Dr. Barbara Gerke
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2010 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 179136029

In Tibetan medicine, notions of vitality and rejuvenation are directly linked to physical purification therapies as well as to the pharmacological detoxification of medicinal substances used for rejuvenating the body. Poisonous substances, such as mercury, are often attributed with rejuvenating and detoxifying qualities. This project examines, through ethnographic case studies and original translations of classical medical texts, ideas and practices concerning the pharmacological detoxification of medicinal ingredients used in Tibetan medicine, with an emphasis on revitalising and anti-aging medicines, especially those containing mercury (e.g. Tibetan precious pills). Relying on theoretical approaches from Translation Studies and Anthropology, the project critically analyses how Tibetan medical doctors and pharmacologists, who are increasingly exposed to biomedicine in contemporary India and Nepal, inter- and trans-culturally translate and reinterpret medical concepts of traditional Tibetan and biomedical epistemologies in both directions. Methodologically, this research combines textual analysis with ethnographic fieldwork in Dharamsala, India and in focus studies in Sarnath, India and Kathmandu, Nepal. The aim is to understand analogous, culture-specific ideas fundamental to pharmacological processing methods of poisonous substances. The project answers such questions as what is considered toxic and what is considered pure, and how poisons are pharmacologically purified or tamed into potent medicines. This research will be of academic, medical, and social relevance. It is especially interesting in the context of current controversies involving toxicity and heavy metal contamination of globally marketed Asian medicines and tonics. Results, published as a monograph and in articles in peer-reviewed journals, will provide an original in-depth contribution to the current debate on socio-culturally constructed ideas of aging, vitality, and toxicity in Asian medical systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants