Treating Essence with Essence: Re-inventing bcud len as Vitalising Dietary Supplements in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine (2012)
Gerke, Barbara (Author)
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity
Volume: 7, no. 1
Issue: 1
Pages: 196-224
Bcud len (pronounced chulen) or `essence extraction' practices have been described in classical Tibetan medical and religious texts as an element of rejuvenation therapies and preventive anti-ageing methods. These practices include the ingestion of bcud len pills taken as a dietary supplement or as a substitute for food during meditation and fasting retreats. This paper 1 discusses how ideas of bcud len are interpreted by Men-Tsee-Khang-trained Tibetan doctors in India as `health tonics' and `dietary supplements.' What underlies contemporary Tibetan medical ideas of an `essence extraction' in relation to Tibetan rejuvenation therapies and pharmacological manufacturing practices of such `tonics'? I argue that not all bcud len are `essence extractions' and that what constitutes an `essence' receives various interpretations by contemporary Tibetan doctors. Ethnographic examples presented are based on postdoctoral fieldwork in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India (2009--2010)
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Gerke, Barbara;
(2013)
The Social Life of Tsotel: Processing Mercury in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510478/)
Article
Wujastyk, Dagmar;
(2013)
Perfect Medicine: Mercury in Sanskrit Medical Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001510474/)
Article
Czaja, Olaf;
(2013)
On the History of Refining Mercury in Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510476/)
Article
Lena Springer;
(2015)
Collectors, Producers, and Circulators of Tibetan and Chinese Medicines in Sichuan Province
(/isis/citation/CBB445531510/)
Article
Dolma, Sonam;
(2013)
Understanding Ideas of Toxicity in Tibetan Medical Processing of Mercury
(/isis/citation/CBB001510477/)
Article
Schwabl, Herbert;
(2013)
The Mercury Puzzle: Tibetan Medicines and the Pharmaceutical Regulations in the European Union--Assessments and Opportunities
(/isis/citation/CBB001510480/)
Book
Dash, Bhagwan;
(2013)
Vagbhata and Candra-Nandana in Indo-Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001451541/)
Book
Pollock, Sheldon I.;
(2011)
Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500--1800
(/isis/citation/CBB001251294/)
Article
Giovanni Pretto;
Chiara Beatrice Vicentini;
(2017)
Una lumaca nella biblioteca Maggioni
(/isis/citation/CBB033149596/)
Article
McKay, Alex;
(2005)
“The Birth of a Clinic”? The IMS Dispensary in Gyantse (Tibet), 1904--1910
(/isis/citation/CBB000773933/)
Article
Goenka, Ajit H.;
(2007)
Rustom Jal Vakil and the Saga of Rauwolfia serpentina
(/isis/citation/CBB000831675/)
Book
Stefan M. Ecks;
(2013)
Eating Drugs: Psychopharmaceutical Pluralism in India
(/isis/citation/CBB933805228/)
Article
Harkishan Singh;
(2015)
Kanny Lall Dey– Pioneer Proponent of Indigenous Drugs
(/isis/citation/CBB490684547/)
Article
Kaul, Ravindernath;
(2010)
Ram Nath Chopra: Father of Indian Pharmacology
(/isis/citation/CBB001000208/)
Article
Jagtap, C. Y.;
Patgiri, B. J.;
Prajapati, P. K.;
(2013)
Purification and Detoxificationprocedures for Metal Ta--Mra in Medieval Indian Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001451233/)
Article
Bhatt, Narendra;
(2013)
Preparing Red and Black Mercury Sulphide in an Ayurvedic Setting
(/isis/citation/CBB001510483/)
Article
Sienna Craig;
(2015)
The Efficacy of Collaboration: Tibetan Medicine Across Countries and Conversations
(/isis/citation/CBB578370053/)
Article
Olaf Czaja;
(2015)
The Administration of Tibetan Precious Pills
(/isis/citation/CBB698016356/)
Article
Bolsokhoyeva, Natalia;
(2008)
Tibetan Medical Schools of the Aga Area (Chita Region)
(/isis/citation/CBB000850181/)
Article
Garrett, Frances;
(2010)
Shaping the Illness of Hunger: A Culinary Aesthetics of Food and Healing in Tibet
(/isis/citation/CBB001450708/)
Be the first to comment!