Full Description
Through an ethnography of the social and medical worlds of a community of Tibetan refugees in India, this book addresses two main questions: first, how has the prolonged displacement of Tibetan refugees affected concepts of health in the exile community? Second, how has exile changed traditional Tibetan medical practices? It explores how social changes linked to exile have influenced concepts of health and illness in the Tibetan refugee community of Dharamsala and by looking at recent changes in the theory and practice of traditional Tibetan medicine investigates the role of traditional Tibetan medicine in sustaining public health in the exile community.
Contents
Table of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Note on transliteration and the Wylie system
List of abbreviations used
Introduction
PART I: INEQUALITIES IN EXILE
Chapter 1. "Because we are Tibetans": Talking about health
Chapter 2. "India is the happiest place!" Contextualising Exile
Chapter 3. "If this place doesn't agree with you, wounds and diseases will come"
Chapter 4. From "old-timers" to "newcomers": inequalities in the Diaspora
PART II: THE ROLE OF TRADITIONAL TIBETAN MEDICINE
Chapter 5. The Mentsikhang: Construing Authority
Chapter 6. Humours on trial: the Mentsikhang's dilemmas
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
References
Index
