Critically Endangered? Medicinal Plant Cultivation and the Reconfiguration of Sowa Rigpa in Ladakh

Abstract

Despite the increasing attention being paid to Himalayan medicinal plants in various realms over recent years, the effects of resource depletion, and of attempts to control it, on the medical traditions that depend directly upon these plants remain largely in shadow. This article seeks to illuminate this lacuna by examining the relationships developing between medicinal plant conservation and Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine) in Ladakh, Himalayan India. I discuss four cultivation projects, their contributions to emergent patterns of medicine production and their positioning within the wider transformations shaping this medical tradition. I show that while some plant species have indeed become increasingly threatened in Ladakh, it is small-scale medicine production, and a particular form of Sowa Rigpa associated with it, that have become 'critically endangered', particularly in light of an elite-driven quest to secure central government recognition for the system. Medicinal plants are being cast in a variety of roles on this stage, expressing social, commercial and medical interests that converge and conflict with one another in different fields. I argue that while the projects in question largely feed into contemporary trends towards medical modernisation and the increasing concentration of pharmaceutical production, they also play a counterbalancing role by supporting small-scale production and practice. This multiplicity reflects the ambivalence being experienced by practitioners in a period of considerable flux, as well as calling into question the utility of linear models of medical change and binary conceptualisations of 'tradition' and 'modernity'. Himalayan plants and medical traditionsThe medicinal plants of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau have become the objects of increasing attention from many directions over recent decades. International donors and policy makers, government departments, NGOs and those involved in the burgeoning herbal industry have all initiated actions concerning these plants, while authors of diverse backgrounds and disciplines

Positioning Sowa Rigpa in India

“…Rationality, homogeneity, and professionalism were thus 'selectively accentuated' (Pordié 2008b), while the plurality that actually characterised the tradition on the ground was consistently obscured (see Besch 2007;Blaikie 2011;Pordié 2002). This amounted to a strategic denial of Sowa Rigpa's multiplicity in order to achieve the goal of recognition.…”

“…However, from 2006 it sought to extend its authority beyond these 'Qualified Medical Practitioners' through the registration of unqualified amchi, mostly Himalayan Indians and Nepalis, whom it referred to as 'Registered Medical Practitioners' (RMPs). In spite of their important health care role in many areas (Besch 2007;Blaikie 2011;Craig 2008;Kloos 2004), these RMPs found few of their most pressing concerns -such as lack of income and medicinesreflected in CCTM directives (CCTM 2008). Many Ladakhi amchi accepted RMP status as a form of interim registration and a prerequisite for attending Tibetan-run training workshops.…”

“…Loss of social status, competition with biomedicine, lack of income and facilities, weak institutions, and the absence of state support were the most commonly cited causes of Sowa Rigpa's decline in Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh (Besch 2007;Blaikie 2011;Kloos 2004;Kuhn 1994;Pordié 2002Pordié , 2003. Survival for Himalayan amchi was thus much closer to the existential, absolute meaning of the word and formed part of a very different framing narrative: reversing stagnation and decline rather than facilitating further progress and expansion.…”

Currents of Tradition in Sowa Rigpa Pharmacy

“…It was without any support from the state or, indeed, any other institution that a handful of enterprising individuals and amchi associations began opening cottage industry pharmacies in Ladakh from the late 1980s onward (Blaikie 2009). By extending materia medica supply networks, developing expertise, and using new technologies, they were able to produce a much wider range of medicines in much larger quantities than was formerly possible, including relatively complex formulations that were formerly beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest and best-connected amchi.…”

“…While medicine production was at least partially industrialized over a century ago in most other codified Asian medical systems, the pattern and practice of pharmacy did not begin to change to any substantial degree in Ladakh until the 1990s (Blaikie 2009). Sowa Rigpa pharmacy has therefore developed under conditions of relatively weak governmental influence, indirect biomedical authority and technoscientific intervention, minimal capital investment, and limited market horizons.…”