Buddhist Medicine: The Role of Religion in the Transnational Translation of Medical Knowledge

C. Pierce Salguero will speak on Buddhist medicine at Duke University.

Embedded within Buddhist sacred texts, a system closely related to ancient Greek Hippocratic medicine emerged in India in the last four centuries BCE. As Buddhism began spread beyond the subcontinent, these ideas were subsequently transmitted across South, Central, East, and Southeast Asia, becoming in many places throughout Eurasia the dominant way to think about disease, healing, and the body. However, the local reception of Buddhist medicine can be understood as a process of transnational translation that invariably was shaped by local cultural, social, and political factors. Focusing on two examples of textual and visual translation
from medieval China and modern Thailand, Dr. Salguero seeks to open a dialogue about the medical discourse and imagery in Buddhist texts and rituals, the strategies of translation involved in the crosscultural exchange of religious and medical ideas, and the many ways in which healing has been understood, translated, and put to use by Buddhists worldwide.