Buddhism and Medicine
An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:13th Dec '19
Should be back in stock very soon
Over the centuries, Buddhist ideas have influenced medical thought and practice in complex and varied ways in diverse regions and cultures. A companion to Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources, this work presents a collection of modern and contemporary texts and conversations from across the Buddhist world dealing with the multifaceted relationship between Buddhism and medicine.
Covering the early modern period to the present, this anthology focuses on the many ways Buddhism and medicine were shaped by the forces of colonialism, science, and globalization, as well as ruptures and reconciliations between tradition and modernity. Editor C. Pierce Salguero and an international collection of scholars highlight diversity and innovation in the encounters between Buddhist and medical thought. The chapters contain a wide range of sources presenting different perspectives rooted in distinct times and places, including translations of published and unpublished documents and transcripts of ethnographic interviews as well as accounts by missionaries and colonial authorities and materials from the contemporary United States and United Kingdom. Together, these varied sources illustrate the many intersections of Buddhism and medicine in the past and how this nexus continues to be crucial in today’s global context.
Buddhism and Medicine is an invaluable sourcebook for the complex interplay between religion and medicine in Asia. It breaks ground on an astonishing range of topics and materials, and should be of interest to historians, anthropologists, and scholars of religion. -- Robert H. Sharf, D. H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley
This excellent volume should be an essential resource for students and scholars in the fields of Buddhism and science, medicine, magic, and healing. By drawing on a wide variety of both textual and ethnographic sources from colonial critiques to modern Facebook posts from across the Buddhist world, the editor and his contributors have provided a rare view into the study of Buddhism and medicine that goes far beyond the contemporary study of mindfulness and well-being. -- Justin Thomas McDaniel, author of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand
In this elegant sourcebook, C. Pierce Salguero and his collaborators demonstrate, with unprecedented scope, how very diverse are the world's Buddhisms and the world's medicines. Neither romanticizing nor dismissing the contributions of Asian religion to the history of healing, this project teaches us much about how humans have dealt with suffering, today and in the past. -- Judith Farquhar, Max Palevsky Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Health and illness have always been concerns of practitioners. These translations of exemplary medical texts from the recent past demonstrate the enduring medical tradition within Buddhism. Not merely a religious tradition, or a system of doctrinal claims, or the texts that contain those claims and their philosophic rationales, Buddhism is effectively a culture in its own right. -- Richard K. Payne, author of Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan: Indic Roots of Mantra
The book always provides the tools the reader needs to make sense of what is being presented. Overall it succeeds wonderfully in conveying the vitality of the ongoing encounter of Buddhism and medicine. Readers with any interest in thisfield are likely tofind it a constant source of stimulation and enlightenment. * Isis *
ISBN: 9780231189361
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
424 pages