UC Santa Barbara

This dissertation explores the relationship between Buddhism and traditional Tibetan medicine, or Sowa Rigpa. More specifically, this project traces the significance and utilization of the tantric Buddhist Yutok Nyingtig tradition from its inception in twelfth–thirteenth century Tibet as an accompaniment to the transmission of medical knowledge to its contemporary propagation as a stand-alone spiritual practice in a global context.

In many ways, the tantric Buddhist ritual and practice tradition called the Yutok Nyingtig Guru Sādhana (g.yu thog snying thig bla sgrub) exemplifies the strategic importance of an appropriate religious lineage for Tibetan medical practitioners (amchi), and it has a rich history of being a factor in legitimizing and empowering amchi and their medical heritage. This research proposes that there is a demonstrable trend in Tibetan medical history from the time of Yutok Yönten Gönpo (twelfth century) that is characterized by relations of power, divergent interests, and legitimating modalities that still shape the tradition today as it reaches an increasingly transnational audience. In short, this dissertation shows how elements of Buddhism—and the Yutok Nyingtig tradition in particular—have been understood, portrayed, and leveraged vis-à-vis the Tibetan medical tradition historically and in its contempary manifestations.

This research contributes to the ongoing discussion revolving around issues of legitimacy, the role of religion, and the impacts of globalizing and modernizing forces in Sowa Rigpa. To this end, this dissertation offers a look into three different contemporary contexts of Tibetan medical training: two translocal Tibetan medical institutions in Nepal (Sowa Rigpa International College and Traditional Buddhist Sorig Institute), and a transnational organization involved in the global transmission of Tibetan medical knowledge and the Yutok Nyingtig tradition (Sorig Khang International). These three “sites” problematize the relationship between local and global manifestations of Tibetan medical knowledge. Investigating these diverging contexts enhances our understanding of the landscape of contemporary Tibetan training and highlights some observable transformations in the way in which Sowa Rigpa is being conceptualized and disseminated.

By combining historical and textual analysis with ethnographic methods, this research demonstrates the malleability of the Tibetan medical tradition in relation to Buddhism and the Yutok Nyingtig tradition. The seven chapters illustrate how Sowa Rigpa has been quick to adapt since its cosmopolitan beginnings, how the medical system was adopted as a vehicle for pursuing the bodhisattva path, and how the tradition is currently shaped in various ways outside of Tibet by global forces. By examining these temporally, geographically, and culturally distant instances of Sowa Rigpa and Buddhism from a multicentric and global perspective, this dissertation aims to underscore the considerable variety of significance assigned to the various religious components associated with Sowa Rigpa, and the extent to which they may be emphasized within the diverse contexts of contemporary Sowa Rigpa training institutions. Additionally, this study contributes to the scant research on Sowa Rigpa training institutions in Nepal, which have not received sufficient attention to date.

The arguments presented in this dissertation project suggest that the tendency for Tibetan “secular” domains—such as Sowa Rigpa—to align with the Buddhist doctrine and particular Buddhist practices can often be explained pragmatically: the need for recognition and legitimacy has remained a constant throughout the history of Sowa Rigpa. This dissertation evinces that the world of Tibetan medicine is a domain of a plurality of interests and an array of external pressures that necessitate individual Tibetan medical practitioners and institutions to negotiate and articulate their position regarding the connection between Sowa Rigpa and Buddhism. Religion remains—as a socially constructed domain of legitimacy—an important reference point for Tibetan medical practice, and the tradition’s history and present demonstrate agility in adapting and innovation in construing meaning in diverging circumstances.

As the dissemination and transmission of Tibetan medical knowledge is increasingly impacted by forces of transnationalism and is not bound by borders or limited to a particular culture, the networks of associative meanings take entirely new forms and are continuously reconstructed as they spread globally. This trajectory has an increasingly transforming impact on Sowa Rigpa as it is translated and construed for new audiences and purposes.