Pub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341483
J. Flowers
This article reveals an important, yet hidden, Korean response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that goes beyond the actions of the state. It focuses on the Korean medicine doctors who were excluded from any government-led public health or treatment plans for COVID-19. Bypassing the state, they used telehealth to provide herbal medicines to 20 percent of COVID-19 patients in South Korea. Traditional medicine doctors volunteered their services and financial resources to fill a gap in COVID-19 care. Most observers attribute Korean success in controlling COVID-19 to the leadership of the technocratic state with buy-in from the population. However, the case of Korea offers an example of bottom-up healthcare in a community where people chose their own native cultural resources and helps to explain how doctors were able to take the initiative to autonomously work with people in the community to help to stop the otherwise rapid transmission of the virus.
{"title":"Bypassing the Technocratic State in South Korea","authors":"J. Flowers","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341483","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341483","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article reveals an important, yet hidden, Korean response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that goes beyond the actions of the state. It focuses on the Korean medicine doctors who were excluded from any government-led public health or treatment plans for COVID-19. Bypassing the state, they used telehealth to provide herbal medicines to 20 percent of COVID-19 patients in South Korea. Traditional medicine doctors volunteered their services and financial resources to fill a gap in COVID-19 care. Most observers attribute Korean success in controlling COVID-19 to the leadership of the technocratic state with buy-in from the population. However, the case of Korea offers an example of bottom-up healthcare in a community where people chose their own native cultural resources and helps to explain how doctors were able to take the initiative to autonomously work with people in the community to help to stop the otherwise rapid transmission of the virus.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91263328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341491
William A. McGrath
This is an introduction to and translation of the Vase of the Deathless Ones’ Ambrosia Tantra. The Vase of Ambrosia presents itself as a treasure text that was taught by Padmasambhava in eighth-century Tibet and finally revealed five hundred years later. In the opening chapter, Padmasambhava explains that a devastating epidemic disease will spread to Tibet and ultimately kill three out of every four people in the world. Despite this dire prognosis, he also explains the medical and spiritual causes of the disease, such that the physicians and ritual specialists of the future will be able to treat their patients and protect themselves. Taken together, the Vase of Ambrosia is a scriptural cycle that represents the Tibetan experiences of and responses to the bubonic plague in the thirteenth century, and which continues to inspire Buddhist approaches to epidemic disease even today.
{"title":"The Vase of Ambrosia","authors":"William A. McGrath","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341491","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This is an introduction to and translation of the Vase of the Deathless Ones’ Ambrosia Tantra. The Vase of Ambrosia presents itself as a treasure text that was taught by Padmasambhava in eighth-century Tibet and finally revealed five hundred years later. In the opening chapter, Padmasambhava explains that a devastating epidemic disease will spread to Tibet and ultimately kill three out of every four people in the world. Despite this dire prognosis, he also explains the medical and spiritual causes of the disease, such that the physicians and ritual specialists of the future will be able to treat their patients and protect themselves. Taken together, the Vase of Ambrosia is a scriptural cycle that represents the Tibetan experiences of and responses to the bubonic plague in the thirteenth century, and which continues to inspire Buddhist approaches to epidemic disease even today.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88886377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341488
T. Alberts
This article uses a study of two epidemic outbreaks of smallpox in late seventeenth-century Siam to interrogate the developing “social meaning” of the disease in Thai society at the time. Through this case study the article examines the problems of translation and the limitations of our source bases for understanding premodern approaches to epidemic management. It suggests ways of reading across various sources to reconstruct how intercultural learning, exchange, and experiment among communities who suffered epidemic disease contributed to global constructions of concepts of disease.
{"title":"Experiments in Dealing with Epidemics in Seventeenth-Century Siam","authors":"T. Alberts","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341488","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article uses a study of two epidemic outbreaks of smallpox in late seventeenth-century Siam to interrogate the developing “social meaning” of the disease in Thai society at the time. Through this case study the article examines the problems of translation and the limitations of our source bases for understanding premodern approaches to epidemic management. It suggests ways of reading across various sources to reconstruct how intercultural learning, exchange, and experiment among communities who suffered epidemic disease contributed to global constructions of concepts of disease.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81636334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341482
Shelley Ochs, Thomas Avery Garran
The mobilization of Chinese medicine resources in the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei, China, was part of the larger mobilization of society and multiple tiers of the healthcare system. In this article we describe how Chinese medicine teams organized treatment and prevention, how they conceptualized this treatment and evaluated the results, and what this may contribute to our understanding of how traditional medical traditions can be safely and effectively integrated into modern epidemic treatment and control.
{"title":"The Role of Chinese Medicine in Treating and Preventing COVID-19 in Hubei, China","authors":"Shelley Ochs, Thomas Avery Garran","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341482","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The mobilization of Chinese medicine resources in the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei, China, was part of the larger mobilization of society and multiple tiers of the healthcare system. In this article we describe how Chinese medicine teams organized treatment and prevention, how they conceptualized this treatment and evaluated the results, and what this may contribute to our understanding of how traditional medical traditions can be safely and effectively integrated into modern epidemic treatment and control.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73587862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-17DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341477
D. Harper
{"title":"Traditional Chinese Medicine: Heritage and Adaptation, written by Paul U. Unschuld","authors":"D. Harper","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341477","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"7 1","pages":"339-341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76342435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-17DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341478
Burton Cleetus
{"title":"Hereditary Physicians of Kerala: Traditional Medicine and Ayurveda in Modern India, written by Indudharan Menon","authors":"Burton Cleetus","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341478","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"170 1","pages":"342-344"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75916975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-17DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341472
A. Winterbottom
The practice of medicine and healing is always accompanied by a range of paraphernalia, from pillboxes to instruments to clothing. Yet such things have rarely attracted the attention of historians of medicine. Here, I draw on perspectives from art history and religious studies to ask how these objects relate, in practical and symbolic terms, to practices of healing. In other words, what is the connection between medical culture and material culture? I focus on craft objects relating to medicine and healing in Lanka during the Kandyan period (ca. 1595–1815) in museum collections in Canada and Sri Lanka. I ask what the objects can tell us, first, about early modern Lankan medicine and healing and, second, about late nineteenth- and twentieth-century efforts to reconstruct tradition. Finally, I explore what studying these objects might add to current debates about early modern globalization in the context of both material culture and medicine.
{"title":"Material Culture and Healing Practice","authors":"A. Winterbottom","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341472","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341472","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The practice of medicine and healing is always accompanied by a range of paraphernalia, from pillboxes to instruments to clothing. Yet such things have rarely attracted the attention of historians of medicine. Here, I draw on perspectives from art history and religious studies to ask how these objects relate, in practical and symbolic terms, to practices of healing. In other words, what is the connection between medical culture and material culture? I focus on craft objects relating to medicine and healing in Lanka during the Kandyan period (ca. 1595–1815) in museum collections in Canada and Sri Lanka. I ask what the objects can tell us, first, about early modern Lankan medicine and healing and, second, about late nineteenth- and twentieth-century efforts to reconstruct tradition. Finally, I explore what studying these objects might add to current debates about early modern globalization in the context of both material culture and medicine.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"34 1","pages":"251-290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82730773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-17DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341474
J. Alter, J. Farquhar, Muhammad Ahsan Khan, William A. McGrath, V. Scheid, N. Sivin, Faizah Zakaria, K. Zysk
Asian Medicine is inaugurating a new type of article in this issue, the editorial forum. For our launch of this new format, an international range of scholars working on Asian medicine across different geographical, temporal, and disciplinary contexts were invited to respond to the question “Why study Asian medicine?” The perspectives they have expressed here reflect their diverse interests, motivations, and career trajectories across the spectrum of seniority.
{"title":"Why Study Asian Medicine?","authors":"J. Alter, J. Farquhar, Muhammad Ahsan Khan, William A. McGrath, V. Scheid, N. Sivin, Faizah Zakaria, K. Zysk","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341474","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Asian Medicine is inaugurating a new type of article in this issue, the editorial forum. For our launch of this new format, an international range of scholars working on Asian medicine across different geographical, temporal, and disciplinary contexts were invited to respond to the question “Why study Asian medicine?” The perspectives they have expressed here reflect their diverse interests, motivations, and career trajectories across the spectrum of seniority.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"16 1","pages":"301-314"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77049074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-17DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341475
Marta Hanson, Sarah Zanolini, Natalie Köhle, Dexter Kendrick, Alexander O. Hsu
Asian Medicine is inaugurating a new type of article in this issue, the pedagogical forum. For our launch of this new format, forum editors Zanolini and Hanson invited a range of scholars and practitioners teaching East Asian medicine within diverse institutional contexts to contribute. Their different approaches to teaching can be more broadly applied to any medical tradition in Asia.
{"title":"Expanded Possibilities for Teaching Asian Medicines","authors":"Marta Hanson, Sarah Zanolini, Natalie Köhle, Dexter Kendrick, Alexander O. Hsu","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341475","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Asian Medicine is inaugurating a new type of article in this issue, the pedagogical forum. For our launch of this new format, forum editors Zanolini and Hanson invited a range of scholars and practitioners teaching East Asian medicine within diverse institutional contexts to contribute. Their different approaches to teaching can be more broadly applied to any medical tradition in Asia.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"53 1","pages":"315-326"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78867339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-17DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341473
C. Salguero
While modernization and globalization have been sweeping the Korean medical industry of late, a perhaps seemingly contradictory trend toward more personalized care has also been unfolding in certain circles. This is a brief case study of a traditional Korean medical doctor who integrates Western mindfulness protocols into traditional Korean psychology/psychiatry in order to provide that connection with his patients. This practice report shows that his adaptation of mindfulness represents a Korean counterappropriation of a Western clinical tool that was itself created by appropriating Buddhist techniques. It argues that the multivalent resonances with both science and Buddhist methods give mindfulness utility as a site for this doctor to hybridize different bodies of knowledge, to reinterpret traditional insights in modern idioms, and arrive at new therapeutic innovations for his patients.
{"title":"Countercurrents and Counterappropriations","authors":"C. Salguero","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341473","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000While modernization and globalization have been sweeping the Korean medical industry of late, a perhaps seemingly contradictory trend toward more personalized care has also been unfolding in certain circles. This is a brief case study of a traditional Korean medical doctor who integrates Western mindfulness protocols into traditional Korean psychology/psychiatry in order to provide that connection with his patients. This practice report shows that his adaptation of mindfulness represents a Korean counterappropriation of a Western clinical tool that was itself created by appropriating Buddhist techniques. It argues that the multivalent resonances with both science and Buddhist methods give mindfulness utility as a site for this doctor to hybridize different bodies of knowledge, to reinterpret traditional insights in modern idioms, and arrive at new therapeutic innovations for his patients.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"57 1","pages":"291-300"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76068888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}