Medicine and Memory in Tibet: Amchi Physicians in an Age of Reform

307 Pages·2018·9.245 MB·English

by  Theresia Hofer

MEDICINE AND MEMORY IN TIBET
Studies on Ethnic Groups in China
Stevan Harrell, Editor
MEDICINE AND MEMORY IN TIBET
Amchi Physicians in an Age of Reform
Theresia hofer
UniversiTy of WashingTon Press
Seattle
Copyright © 2018 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Composed in Minion, typeface designed by Robert Slimbach
Cover photograph: Moxibustion applied to
a patient’s head. Photo by Meinrad Hofer.
22 21 20 19 18  5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
University of Washington Press
www.washington.edu/uwpress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hofer, Theresia, author.
Title: Medicine and memory in Tibet : Amchi physicians in an age of
reform / Theresia Hofer.
Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2018. | Series: Studies
on ethnic groups in China | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017029406 (print) | lccn 2017028012 (ebook) |
isbn 9780295742984 (hardcover : acid-free paper) | isbn 9780295742991
(paperback : acid-free paper) | isbn 9780295743004 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Medicine, Tibetan—History—20th century. | Medicine,
Tibetan—History—21st century. | Physicians—China—Tibet Autonomous
Region—History. | Memory—Social aspects—China—Tibet Autonomous
Region—History. | Social networks—China—Tibet Autonomous Region—
History. | Ethnicity—China—Tibet Autonomous Region—History. | Social
change—China—Tibet Autonomous Region—History. | Tibet Autonomous
Region (China)—Social conditions. | Tibet Autonomous Region (China)—
Relations—China. | China—Relations—China—Tibet Autonomous Region.
Classification: lcc R603.T5 H65 2018 (ebook) | lcc R603.T5 (print) |
ddc 610.951/5-dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029406
CONTENTS
Foreword by Stevan Harrell vii
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Terminology and Romanization xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
Maps xvi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
The Tibetan Medical House 29
Chapter 2
Medicine and Religion in the Politics and
Public Health of the Tibetan State 59
Chapter 3
Narrative, Time, and Reform 89
Chapter 4
The Medico-cultural Revolution 116
Chapter 5
Reviving Tibetan Medicine, Integrating Biomedicine 152
Chapter 6
Looking at Illness 185
Conclusion 214
Notes 227
Glossary 239
Bibliography 249
Index 273
FOREWORD
Research conducted in Tibet is precious in any age, since that land is not
easily accessible even in the best of times. Today, as access becomes ever
more difficult—especially for foreign researchers—analysis based on
research on the ground is invaluable. Theresia Hofer had both the enter-
prising spirit and good fortune to be able to conduct “officially official”
research in 2003 and “officially unofficial” research in 2006–7 while study-
ing Tibetan language at Tibet University and serving as a consultant with
a medical project conducted by the Swiss Red Cross.
Research carried out in areas of the Tibet Autonomous Region remote
from the capital city of Lhasa is doubly precious, partly because rural
areas are difficult to reach and partly because there is little material avail-
able on many areas. Hofer has the linguistic skills and deep cultural knowl-
edge to be able to interview and collect documents in Shigatse Town and
in Ngamring and Lhatse Counties, and her personal acquaintance with
several rural, urban, and monastic physicians gave her entry to observe
how they cared for their patients.
Research on medicine in Tibet is rare, since Tibetan medicine is less
familiar to outsiders than the Chinese or Ayurvedic systems. Research on
medicine as it is practiced among the common people is especially valua-
ble, since there is almost no documentation in languages other than
Tibetan and since age-old practices passed down within local family tra-
ditions are in danger of disappearing, even as the Chinese regime gov-
erning Tibet promotes preservation and “modernization” of the traditions
of the Mentsikhang (Institute of Medicine and Astrology) and Tibetan
medicine hospitals.
vii
viii Foreword
The Medical Houses explored in this book are houses both in the
physical sense of structures where a doctor holds consultations and pre-
scribes and prepares medications and in the metaphorical sense of endur-
ing social groups, based primarily on kinship ties, that pass on the texts
and clinical expertise on which diagnosis and treatment are based. Hofer
became acquainted with the members of several of these houses, located
mostly in rural areas, listened to their house histories and personal stories,
examined their treasured medical texts with them, and sat in on their
consultations.
And what a story these houses have to tell! Like so many stories about
Tibet and Tibetans, it begins with an idealized past before the 1959 revolt
against Chinese rule, when the doctors practiced their art without politi-
cal interference; then moves to their suppression and personal suffering
in the early years of the Cultural Revolution beginning in 1966; continues
to their cautious revival beginning in the 1970s, even before Chinese
Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang’s famous visit to Tibet in 1980; and
finally brings us to their immersion in the whirlwind of modernization
that began to overtake the region after the turn of the millennium.
We are not sure just what has happened to western Tibet’s Medical
Houses since the Lhasa demonstrations of 2008. The Chinese regime has
continually tightened policies, increased surveillance and “patriotic edu-
cation,” and reduced opportunities for Tibetan-language learning, while
at the same time pursuing reckless economic development, developing
hydro electric power and mining, promoting immigration (though mostly
to Lhasa) by the Han (China’s ethnic majority), and encouraging tourism
not just to see the breathtaking scenery but to learn an official, bowd-
lerized version of Tibetan culture minus the “problematic” parts of the
religion—that is, the connection between religion and the state. Will the
children of the Medical Houses carry on their knowledge and practice?
Whatever the future holds, Theresia Hofer has given us an insightful
account of what they were like and how they endured through years of
revolution and reform, hinting that they may well adapt and flourish in
the current age of renewed repression.
—Stevan Harrell
Summer solstice, 2017
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My most heartfelt thanks go to the Tibetan research participants in Tsang
for so willingly and generously sharing their lives, medical work, and
memories with me, jointly seeking clarity, and providing their hospitality.
Although many names used in this book are pseudonyms, my apprecia-
tion and respect for each individual remains the same. I am particularly
grate ful to the late Yonten Tsering and his wife Yeshe Lhamo in Shigatse,
and to Ngawang Dorjé and his family in Lhasa, for letting me become a
part of their families and for teaching me so much. All interpretations and
conclusions drawn from the research are solely my own, as are any errors.
In Lhasa, Shigatse Town, and Beijing, too, I received indispensable help
with my research and enjoyed the friendship of many people who influ-
enced this book in subtle but important ways, and to whom I am deeply
grateful. They include Rinzin, the late Tsering Gyalpo, Nyima Tsering,
Nyima Lhamo, Penpa Tsering, Tashi Norbu, Tsering Dikey, Jigmé, Dawa,
Leigh Miller, Jason Sangster, Kabir Heimsath, Maria Luisa Nodari, Ruth
and Flaviu Huber, Ursula Rechberg, Dawn Collins, and Mingji Cuomo in
Lhasa; Thomas Aebi, Leo Näscher, Lobsang, Jake, Adrun, Mike, Sabriye
and Paul, and Putri and Yulha in Shigatse; and Professor Thubten Phun-
tsog, Wang Liu, and Zhen Yan in Beijing. I would also like to acknowledge
my hosts and teachers at Tibet University for providing me with a long-
term visa and residence permit and for allowing me to progress as a stu-
dent of the Tibetan language, while continuing to be a researcher. The
fieldwork and visits since 2006 would not have been the same without the
friendship and intermittent translation assistance of Peyang, whom I
ix