Article ID: CBB981358006

The Buddhist Grammar of Healing (2017)

unapi

In Rakhine State, like elsewhere in Myanmar and in the region, many healers combine the knowledge and skills of both the herbalist and the exorcist, each resulting from the blending of several medical traditions that have spread across the region and mixed with indigenous belief systems. Within this assemblage, both the efficacy of the remedies, as well as that of the healer, derive from compounds of different sources—tangible and intangible, visible and invisible, material and spiritual1 —reflecting the complexity of the cognitive framework. Within this therapeutic whole, Buddhism occupies a singular position. Although often presented as totally separate from worldly practices, Buddhist practices, symbols, and powers are indeed a sine qua non of medical efficacy in many therapeutic processes. Focusing on the case of the master U Thun Kaing, this article intends to illustrate how medical efficacy is built within a pluralistic medical context, where Buddhism occupies a predominant role that is often denied in ideological conversations. How are different notions, practices, and powers articulated in the hands of a single healer? How is this complexity shaped by the dominance of Buddhism, and how is this role articulated with the common perception of Buddhism as “pure” and “otherworldly”? How does the relationship between materiality and spirituality, visibility, and invisibility unfold?

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Authors & Contributors
Arsdall, Anne Van
Balaban, Carey D.
Craig, Sienna R.
Erlen, Jonathon
González, Alejandro García
Gordon, Richard L.
Journals
Asclepio: Archivo Iberoamericano de Historia de la Medicina
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity
Circumscribere: International Journal for the History of Science
Histoire des Sciences Médicales
Journal of Burma Studies
Medical History
Publishers
University of Chicago Press
University of South Florida
Ashgate
Berghahn Books
Columbia University Press
Indiana University Press
Concepts
Medicine, herbal
Pharmacy
Medicine
Healers
Women in medicine
Materia medica
People
Anna of Saxony
Dorothea of Mansfeld, Countess
Elizabeth of Hesse, Dutchess, Princess of Saxony
Medici, family
Oberlin, Jean-Frédéric
Time Periods
Medieval
20th century, late
16th century
17th century
18th century
21st century
Places
Germany
Europe
Myanmar (Burma)
Tuscany (Italy)
Rome (Italy)
Tibet
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