Aleena Madni Medicine, Healing and Religion Ivette Vargas 5-2-13 Globalization of Tibetan Medicine In the article Buddhism,

science, and market: the globalization of Tibetan medicine, by Craig R. Janes, talks about how Tibetan medicine has made its impact in western medicine. Its a different alternative when Europeans or Americans arent getting the results they want from biomedicine or they want to try something new. Biomedicine usually works best when the patients illness is quick to treat or the side effects of the medicine arent too hazardous. Changes in China had in impact on social services in China effecting Tibetan medicine causing it to have an upper hand to biomedicine because it its low-cost and its efficient. Janes also talks about the patients perspective when going to a Tibetan clinic and how the spiritual/moral parts of the medicine come into play. Three major reforms in China took place that had an impact on Tibetan medicine. First, was a direct state funding of health care declined rapidly leading private companies to form to take charge of healthcare (271). Second, decisions over health policy were largely decentralized which led to more local companies organizing and providing health care. Lastly, the government relaxed regulations over medical entrepreneurship that led to rapid development of a robust medical pluralism in towns and cities throughout the region. These reforms impacted the public part of Tibetan medicine, by opening up more private shops. Tibetan medicine started making for-profit hospitals instead of non-profit making it difficult for famers or people living in rural areas to get treatment but it was still cheaper than biomedicine. It was also difficult for rural area patients to come to the city to come get treatment but since Tibetan medicine is based on cultural practices its easy to send a trained professional to these areas so they can get treatment. The medicine is produced locally through the applications of indigenous knowledge and is unique to each individual so the pressure to reduce healing to its material product makes it difficult to produce so globalization is hard (271). In biomedicine when a patient is diagnosed with a chronic illness like cardiovascular disease, its difficult for patients to undergo treatment because it seems ineffective. Patients turn to Tibetan medicine because its a holistic alternative that has results and is also cheaper compared to the prescription pills a patient needs to buy. The patients perspective when they came into clinic was filled with humoral jargon (278). When the patient comes in they are usually waiting for a famous doctor to come give their examination. Before the doctor conducts the examination, he reads the record book that has all of the patients information, and then takes the patients pulse, but very quickly. The examination usually last between a minute or two, which is very fast. The reason why they come to a Tibetan doctor is because they believe their symptoms to be the result of the actions of spirits or the consequences of defilement, pollution, or desecration. The doctor relates their symptoms to humoral terms, which they may not understand, and give them the appropriate treatment. If the patient can afford health cares, which are patients usually in the urban areas, and their illness is severe they can chose to go to the hospital, where they mix Tibetan and biomedical treatments together. At the hospital they get more diagnostic treatments that are longer and more in depth. The Tibetan medicine acts slowly but is thought to root out the disease so hospitalization can last for a very long

time with the average for three months. The reason why patients chose Tibetan medicine over biomedicine practices is because biomedicine in China, and particularly in Tibet, is oriented to providing care for acute, mostly infectious conditions not for chronic illnesses (280). Also since there may be a language barrier the biomedicine doctor may come off as rude because he or she may not know the cultural ways. When Tibetan medicine comes to the West, Janes talks about how the western imagination of Tibetan medicine can be seen to instantiate links between spirituality and physical health in an epidemiological context where chronic and degenerative diseases (284). So where biomedicine fails at, people will look for treatment elsewhere like Tibetan medicine that does provide treatment in chronic or degenerative diseases. Tibetan doctors will make westerners more comfortable by providing a similar environment to home by wearing white coats and putting incense in the examination room. The reason why only certain parts of Tibetan medicine have become globalized in North America is because Americans do not necessarily adopt healing traditions as whole packages of beliefs and practices but they chose only certain parts that help their illness (283). This creates diverse range of alternatives for treatment.

References: Janes, Craig R. "Buddhism, Science, and Market: The Globalisation of Tibetan Medicine." Anthropology & Medicine 9.3 (2002): 267-89. Web.