Full Description
Mongolian Healing: Knowledge, Transmission and Practice Across Inner Asia explores the rich and diverse medicinal healing practices by Mongolian communities across Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Kalmykia.
This edited volume brings together scholars from various disciplines to examine knowledge systems and practises related to healing therapies, including nomadic healing, ritual practises including shamanic healing, water as a source for healing in the landscape and the art of Mongolian bonesetting. The second part of the book delves into the institutionalization of Mongolian medicine across Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, tracing its adaptation and its continuing presence in both urban and rural contexts, within contemporary healthcare systems, such as the hospital, laboratory and clinic. Through a Mongolian-oriented lens, this volume sheds light on the resilience and adaptability of Mongolian healing and medical traditions in the face of social, political and cultural transformations across history. Combining historical, anthropological and medical perspectives, it offers the first comprehensive account of how these practices have continued to thrive and adapt, bridging ancient knowledge with contemporary applications.
As a part of broader Asian medical traditions, this volume is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners and anyone interested in the dynamic interplay of ancient wisdom and ongoing innovation across Inner Asia.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Terminology and Spelling ix
List of Contributors xi
List of Figures xiii
List of Maps xv
List of Tables xvi
Introduction: Mongolian Healing and Medicine: The Transfer of Different Modes of Medicinal Knowledge 1
LI NARANGOA, NATASHA FIJN AND BENEDIKTE V. LINDSKOG
PART I
Mongol Healing and Curative Practices 27
1 Dom Healing Practices 29
BOLD SHARAV
2 Spiritual Curative Practices (Dom): Translation of a Manuscript 43
JONATHAN RATCLIFFE, NATASHA FIJN AND LI NARANGOA
3 Nomadic Healing: Multispecies Prevention and Treatment 56
NATASHA FIJN
4 Healing Waters in Mongolia 76
BENEDIKTE V. LINDSKOG
5 Healing in Kalmykia, South-West Russia 89
BAASANJAV TERBISH
6 From Shamanic Bonesetters to Doctors of Mongolian Medicine 105
LI NARANGOA AND LI ALTANJULA
PART II
Formalising and Institutionalising Mongolian Medicine 133
7 Institutional Development of Mongolian Medicine 135
LI NARANGOA
8 Formal and Non-formal Medical Education in Inner Mongolia 163
LI NARANGOA
9 Village Doctors as Part of the History of Mongolian Medicine 188
SAIJIRAHU BUYANCHUGLA
10 Compounding Rules of Complex Mongolian Medicine Prescriptions 208
MINGHAI FU, SHUYIN BAO, XIAOPING JI, HONGZHEN YU AND WULIJI AO
11 Medicinal Socialities: Kinship and Knowledge Transmission Between Mongolian Veterinarians and Herders 227
NATASHA FIJN
Afterword 248
Geoffrey Samuel
Bibliography 262
Index 284
