Religion, medicine and the human embryo in Tibet / Frances Garrett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garrett, Frances Mary.

Series:

Routledge critical studies in Buddhism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine--Religious aspects--Buddhism.

Medicine.

Embryology, Human--Religious aspects--Buddhism.

Embryology, Human.

Embryology, Human--China--Tibet Autonomous Region.

China--Tibet Autonomous Region.

Buddhism--China--Tibet Autonomous Region.

Buddhism.

Physical Description:

xvi, 208 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2008.

Contents:

1 Becoming human in Tibetan literature 1

Medicine, science and religion in European thought 2

Models of comparison: science and religion, science and Buddhism 4

Narratives of embryology 8

Caveats and approaches 12

Medical epistemology and the embryological narrative 13

Narrative, identity and history 17

2 Theories of human development 20

Indian medical sources for human development 23

Early human development in Indian Nikaya and Mahayana Buddhism 26

Practicing gestation in Indian Vajrayana Buddhism 31

Chinese traditions of "nurturing the fetus" 33

Cultural inheritance and adaptation 35

3 Interactions between medicine and religion in Tibet 37

Eurasian cosmopolitanism versus Indian Buddhism: a historiographical conflict 37

Linking medical history with Buddhism 41

Striking the path: organizing the influx of Indian culture 42

The heyday of medical scholasticism 47

Locating human development in the narrative of Tibetan history 53

4 The fetal body, gender and the normal 57

Functional physiologies: humoral and digestive systems 60

The circulatory system 64

Characterizing embodiment: gendered, defective and "normal" bodies 71

Female physiology 76

Encountering the narrative's central subject 84

5 Gestation and the religious path 85

Conception and debates over the sequence of fetal development 88

Fetal development in tantric sources 96

The fetal experience of conception, gestation and birth 102

Practicing the exoteric path 106

Esoteric practices for closing the womb's door 109

Purifying death, the intermediate state and rebirth 112

The embryologic vision of reality 117

Inconsistency, ignorance, or innovation? 121

6 Growth, change and continuity 127

Karma and the Buddhist problem of causality 128

Causality, the individual, and the cosmos 130

The power of karma in the context of conception and development 136

The shaky foundations of karma's role in becoming human 140

The role of the elements in causing growth 142

Attributing causality to winds 146

Growth caused by the power of gnosis 148

The forces of creation 150

Epilogue: historiography recapitulates embryology 155.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415441155

0415441153

9780203927427

0203927427

OCLC:

181424084