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OverviewCritically exploring medical thought in a cultural milieu with no discernible influence from the European Enlightenment, Being Human in a Buddhist World 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 in a Buddhist World 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. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Janet GyatsoPublisher: Columbia University Press Imprint: Columbia University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 1.333kg ISBN: 9780231164962ISBN 10: 0231164963 Pages: 544 Publication Date: 20 January 2015 Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional & Vocational , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Out of stock  The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available. Language: English Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments A Technical Note Abbreviations Introduction Part I: In the Capital 1. Reading Paintings, Painting the Medical, Medicalizing the State 2. Anatomy of an Attitude: Medicine Comes of Age Part II: Bones of Contention 3. The Word of the Buddha 4. The Evidence of the Body: Medical Channels. Tantric Knowing 5. Tangled Up in System: The Heart, in the Text and in the Hand Coda: Influence, Rhetoric, and Riding Two Horses at Once Part III: Roots of the Profession 6. Women and Gender 7. The Ethics of Being Human: The Doctor's Formation in a Material Realm Conclusion: Ways and Means for Medicine Notes Bibliographies IndexReviewsAn amazing book and a stellar contribution to Columbia University Press's growing catalog of Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist studies, for it will be the key book on medicine and religion in Tibet for this generation. Like Gyatso's book on autobiography, her new book on medicine will simply be field defining. Little of this literature has received attention to date, and in fact much of it has only been available to a contemporary international scholarly audience for a decade or so. -- Kurtis R. Schaeffer, The University of Virginia Janet Gyatso's long awaited Being Human in a Buddhist World is the most important study of Tibetan medicine in the English language, surpassing previous scholarship in the scope of its history, the extent of its research, and the depth of its insights. But it is also more than that. It is the rare work that causes us to rethink the foundations of our field, leaving readers with both answers and questions about what is encompassed by terms like Tibetan Buddhism and medical science. -- Donald Lopez, Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan An amazing book and a stellar contribution to Columbia University Press's growing catalog of Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist studies, for it will be the key book on medicine and religion in Tibet for this generation. Like Gyatso's book on autobiography, her new book on medicine will simply be field defining. Little of this literature has received attention to date, and in fact much of it has only been available to a contemporary international scholarly audience for a decade or so. -- Kurtis R. Schaeffer, The University of Virginia Author InformationJanet Gyatso is Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard University, where she serves on the faculty of the Divinity School, in the Study of Religion, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Inner Asian and Altaic Studies. Her writing has centered on Tibetan Buddhism and its cultural and intellectual history from the perspective of large issues in the humanities about human experience and its literary presentation. She is the author of Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary, as well as several edited volumes. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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