Women and Gender in Tibetan Medicine

Abstract

The current issue of Asian Medicine emerges from the presentations made and discussions held during the panel 'Women and Gender in Medicine and Healing Across Asia' at the Asian Medicine: Cultivating Traditions and the Challenges of Globalisation conference in Bhutan, September 2009 (organised by IASTAM, the International Association for Traditional Medicine in collaboration with the Institute for Traditional Medicine Services, Thimphu). The original papers given at that panel spanned topics such as female medical practitioners in the history of Korean medicine, reproduction in late imperial and contemporary China, Islamic embryology, and women and gender in Tibetan medicine. While this issue focuses on the Tibetan medical contributions alone, it draws on insights gained from the wider discussions at the panel. It also includes other articles from scholars whose research is particularly relevant to the topic. The intention of this special issue is to present current research focusing on women and gender within the field of Tibetan medical and cultural practices. It presents articles that explore social, cultural, economic and medical aspects of women's health, as well as historical and contemporary roles and perspectives of female doctors and patients found within the medical landscape of a broadly defined Tibet. These contributions serve as points of reflection for this introductory essay, in which we review past and ongoing activities, explore analytical trajectories and innovative approaches in interdisciplinary research on women, gender and medicine in Tibet. OutlineThis introduction has three parts: the first reviews gendered productions, transmissions and practices of Tibetan medicine; the second part discusses the representation of women in medical literature and illustrations, while the 176 H. Fjeld, T. Hofer / Asian Medicine 6 (2010-11) third and last part addresses Tibetan medicine and reproductive health. So far, in the history of Tibetan medicine, called Sowa Rigpa (the 'science of healing', gso ba rig pa), most of its practitioners and authors have been men. Both the learning and practice of Sowa Rigpa and its associated texts have been closely connected to monastic institutions. This however, is only part of the (his)story. Sowa Rigpa was also learnt outside monasteries, within medical lineages, where knowledge and practice was often transmitted from father to son, uncle to nephew, and, as we shall see, from father to daughter, uncle to niece, and mother to daughter and son. Here we find the concept of the 'house' that derives from anthropological kinship theory a useful and encompassing tool for analysing the transmission and practice of Tibetan medicine outside lay and monastic institutions, for it draws out the relations between what in Tibetan are termed medical lineages (sman gyi rgyud) and medical houses (sman grong). We discuss whether, as has been suggested in earlier work by Janet Gyatso and Hanna Havnevik, Tibetan medicine has posed a relatively open field for women and, if so, how wom...

The Return of Polyandry: Kinship and Marriage in Central Tibet

“…); Ekvall (1968); Stein (1972); Havnevik (1989). While there are very few studies of Tibetan lay women (with the exception of some chapters in Gyatso and Havnevik (2005); Fjeld and Hofer (2011) and Hofer (2015) on outstanding women in Tibetan Medicine; Rajan (2018a) on domestic violence in north-eastern Tibet), there has been a growing body of literature dealing with monastic women during the last decades, such as Havnevik (1989Havnevik ( , 1999, Gyatso (1989Gyatso ( , 1998Gyatso ( , 2003, Gutschow (2004), Diemberger (2007), Schneider (2011Schneider ( , 2013 and Jacoby (2014), and also, female ritual practitioners and experts, Schrempf and Schneider (2015). 2.…”

“…2. See Fjeld and Hofer (2011) for more on female amchis in the history of Tibetan medicine, and McGranahan (2010) on women warriors and gender and history more broadly. 3.…”

Medical Pluralism

“…For most of the twentieth century, the studies of medical pluralism contained only scattered references to women-for example, as primary users of alternative medicine or as traditional healers. Today, there is a growing body of literature that critically addresses gender and gender ideologies in the context of medical pluralism (Cameron 2010;Fjeld & Hofer 2011;Flesch 2010;Menjívar 2002;Schrempf 2011;Selby 2005;Zhang 2007). A related area of scholarship is focused on reproduction, traditional birth attendants, and the issues of gender equity in pluralistic medical settings, particularly within the institutions of intercultural medicine in Latin America.…”

“…A related area of scholarship is focused on reproduction, traditional birth attendants, and the issues of gender equity in pluralistic medical settings, particularly within the institutions of intercultural medicine in Latin America. Many medical traditions such as Tibetan medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Unani, and biomedicine used to be the spheres where female doctors, teachers, and authors of medical texts were absent or rare (but see Fjeld & Hofer 2011). In the twenty-first century the situation has started to change, and more women have become practitioners of these previously male-dominated medical traditions.…”

Gender Equality in and on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns’ Terms

“…Reflecting the nuns' words and deeds, we conclude that the nuns' pro-women activities are not derivative of western see Tibetan references in conclusion. Another rich domain of research on women in Tibet is medicine-among others see (Josayma and Dhondup 1990;Tsering 2005;Chos 'phel and Tshe ring 2008;Fjeld and Hofer 2012). In addition to the work nuns featured in this article are doing to improve nuns' education, see also the Tibetan Nuns Project founded and directed by Richen Khando Choegyal (https://tnp.org).…”