Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine

William A. McGrath, Ph.D. (2017), University of Virginia, is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Manhattan College. His research concerns the intersections of religion and medicine in Tibet, and his dissertation is about the institutionalization of medicine at the Buddhist monastery.

• ContentsIntroduction: Navigating the Ocean of Tibetan Medical LiteratureWilliam A. McGrathA Note on Transcription, Transliteration, and BibliographyList of FiguresNotes on ContributorsPart 1: The Vicissitudes of Meaning in Context1 A New Sense of (Dark) Humor in Tibet: Brown Phlegm and Black BileHenk Blezer2 A Preliminary Study on the Biography of Yutok Yönten Gönpo the Elder: Reflections on the Origins of Tibetan MedicineYang Ga3 “Secret Medicine” in the Writings of Sanggyé Gyatso: the Encoded Esoteric Material of TherapeuticsTony Chui4 Visceral Anatomy as Depicted in Tibetan MedicineKatharina Sabernig5 The Modern Biomedical Conception of Cancer and Its Many Potential Correlates in the Tibetan Medical TraditionTawni TidwellPart 2: Medicine and Religion in Context6 The Nine-Fold Magical Cord Cycle: Investigating ’Phrul gyi the gu brgu skor, a Wartime Medical ManualTsering Samdrup7 Knowledge, Imagery, and the Treatment of Communicable Disease in the Vase of the Amṛta of Immortality: a Preliminary Analysis of a Nyingma Medical CorpusCarmen Simioli8 Tantric Divination and Empirical Diagnosis: a Genealogy of Channel Prasenā Rituals in the Tibetan Medical TraditionWilliam A. McGrath9 Madness and the Spirits: Examining the Role of Spirits in Mental Illness in the Tibetan Communities of DarjeelingSusannah Deane10 Material Presentations and Cultural Drug Translations of Contemporary Tibetan Precious PillsBarbara GerkeIndex