The institutionalisation of Tibetan medicine in Indian exile

How do Tibetans live their lives in exile, and what does Tibetan medicine have to do with it? These simple questions lie at the root of this research project, which aims at investigating the ways politics, ethics, and citizenship are manifested in the institutionalization of Tibetan medicine. Preliminary findings suggest that Tibetan medicine is a central domain in which not only ethics but also politics and citizenship are produced and negotiated in exile. The ways in which this happens resemble emerging forms of governance and corporate strategies in an increasingly globalizing world,where contemporary democracies are forced to redefine and rethink themselves and their relations with others.

The purpose of this project is thus to provide a multisited ethnography of the Tibetan diaspora through the lens of the institutionalization of Tibetan medicine. This includes especially a history of its most powerful institution, the Dharamsala-based Men-Tsee-Khang (College of Medicine and Astrology), and an inquiry into its role in the life, politics, and identity-management of the Tibetan refugee community. On a more theoretical level, an argument is proposed for an understanding of politics that is not opposed but integral to ethical conduct. The research is ongoing since 2005 and will culminate in 18 months of in-depth ethnographic and archival research in Dharamsala and other Tibetan settlements in India in 2007/8.

Speaker

Stephan KLOOS, Anthropologist, University of Calfornia at San Francisco and Berkeley

Organisers

Department of Social Sciences
French Institute of Pondicherry

Venue

Jawaharlal Nehru conference Hall
French Institute of Pondicherry
11 Saint Louis street
Pondicherry 605001

Time

16h30

See also : Societies and Medicines in South Asia programme page.