Overview

""Our first encounter with these Tibetan medical paintings is filled with delight, wonder, and pleasure. Their boisterous colors, their exquisite detail, their marvelous array of subject matter, the often playful and energetic figures that people them - all these perceptions strike us at once. We are drawn to the paintings instantly but at the same time are beset with questions."" - Janet Gyatso, from the Introduction The first full set of Tibetan medical paintings, or medical tangkas, were painted between 1687 and 1703 and were inspired by Sangye Gyatso, Regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, who was a great patron of medical learning. In a beautiful and unique artistic style, the paintings illustrate Tibetan medical knowledge that drew on medical traditions from India, ancient Greece, Persia, pre-Buddhist Tibet, and China, while remaining firmly rooted in Buddhism. Copies of the iconic images have been created in meticulous detail through the centuries and Body and Spirit focuses on a set of contemporary paintings in the traditional technique by the Nepalese artist Romio Shrestha and his assistants in Kathmandu. The tangkas illuminate human anatomy and the causes and effects of illness, as well as their diagnosis and treatment. Most of the paintings consist of rows of small human figures, animals, plants, minerals, houses, landscapes, and demons and deities, depicting the rich complexity of human endeavor: farming, animal husbandry, personal hygiene, marriage, sex, birthing, fighting, sleeping, studying, and meditating. The thousands of small and large images were designed to add visual form to the technical information: an eye-pleasing teaching aid for medical students.

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9780295988696

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Body and Spirit will not only be of great use to teachers and students of Asian studies and global medical history but will also give much pleasure to anyone interested in Asian Art. Medical History a beautifully produced catalogueBody and Spirit makes available all seventy-nine paintings, giving a well translated short summary on each of them and an English rendering of all medical terms, drawing on the original seventeenth-century descriptions. Gyatso's erudite introduction adds greatly to the value of the book for academic and general readers alike. Body and Spirit will not only be of great use to teachers and students of Asian studies and global medical history but will also give much pleasure to anyone interested in Asian art. Medical History This new rendering of the subject has the distinct advantage of being affordable and accessible for a wider audience, including students. The subject is eclectic, and the curious-from medical professionals to scholars of art, culture, and religion-will benefit from exploring this new treatment. Choice

Our first encounter with these Tibetan medical paintings is filled with delight, wonder, and pleasure. Their boisterous colors, their exquisite detail, their marvelous array of subject matter, the often playful and energetic figures that people them-all these perceptions strike us at once. We are drawn to the paintings instantly but at the same time are beset with questions. -Janet Gyatso, from the Introduction

Author Information

Laila Williamson is senior scientific assistant and Serinity Young is a research associate, both in the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Janet Gyatso is Hershey Professor of Buddhist studies at The Harvard Divinity School.

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