http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/116638806

Religion, Medicine and the Human Embryo in Tibet

At the core of this book lies the history of embryology and what it reveals about medicine and religion in Tibet. By linking aspects of Tibetan medicine to expressions of culture, religion, art, and literature, the book shows that writing on embryology descriptions on the development of the human body from conception to birth can be found in all forms of Tibetan religious literature, as well as in medical texts and in art. The transformations of embryological narratives over several centuries illuminates key turning points in Tibetan medical history and its relationship with religious doctrine and practice. Embryology was a site for religious and medical theorists alike to contemplate profound questions of being and becoming, while topics such as pharmacology and nosology were left to shape the domain of secular medicine. As religion, stories of human development comment on embodiment, gender, sociopolitical hierarchy, religious ontology, and spiritual progress. Through the lens of embryology, this book examines how these concerns shift as Tibetan history moves through the formative 'renaissance' period of the twelfth through seventeenth centuries.

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