PROJECTS
CENTRAL ASIA

VILLAGE IDENTITY AND STATE INFLUENCE IN BUDDHIST CENTRAL ASIA
(1) Elke Studer | Races for the Gods. Byang thang ’char can rta rgyug.
(2) Hilde Schäffler | Ethnological Knowledge, Objects and Colonial Power.
(3) Guntram Hazod | Historical Maps of Central Tibet.
(4) Walter Probstler | Cultural History of the Buryats in Northeastern Mongolia.
(5) Stephan Kloos | Tibetan Medicine among the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh.


 
STEPHAN KLOOS | TIBETAN MEDICINE AMONG THE BUDDHIST DARDS OF LADAKH
 
Stephan Kloos carried out a detailed study of the social-medical situation and history of the Buddhist Dard Community in Hanu, located in the Ladakh region close to those parts of Kashmir that are under Indian control. The social role of the amchi, the local Tibetan healer, was analyzed from several perspectives.
 
First, Kloos incorporated the theoretical discourse of the social sciences, particularly medical anthropology, to examine the roles, social status, and power of the healers. Next, he considered the historical and contemporary situation of the Hanu region in general and the village of Hanu Gongma in particular, incorporating both local history and present status of the amchi-medicine and its protagonists.
 
After working out the theoretical and empirical foundations, Kloos moved forward with analyses and conclusions, demonstrating how the new influences of the market economy and changing social norms have created an existential crisis for local healers, resulting in a reduction of their practices and a corresponding decline in their social status. At the same time, some practitioners of amchi have been able to use the processes of globalization to their advantage, finding new ways to legitimate and retain some of their status and practices. An analysis of the strategies of these healers demonstrates the tensions and the possibilities between tradition and modernity in the age of globalization.
 
Stephan Kloos’ book Tibetan Medicine Among the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh appeared in 2004 as a volume of Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde.
 
 
 
Kloos, Stephan (2004): Tibetan Medicine among the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde No. 57, Vienna.
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Notice: We want to inform you that the research program will come to an end on the 31st of March 2007. Since that time this homepage will not be updated anymore.