A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine

Buddhism has had a significant impact on medicine, health, and healing since its origins, providing conceptual tools to understand illness and therapies for the sick. This book explores the interplay between Buddhism and medicine over the past two and a half millennia, showing that Buddhism has played a crucial role in cross-cultural medical exchange and has influenced many traditional practices throughout Asia.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 01 February 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Medicine, health, and healing have held a central place in Buddhism since its inception. Long before the widespread popularity of mindfulness and meditation, Buddhism offered cultures worldwide conceptual tools to understand illness and a diverse array of therapies and interventions for the care of the sick. Today, Buddhist traditions, healers, and institutions continue to exert a tangible influence on medical care in societies both within and outside Asia, particularly in the domains of mental health, biomedicine, and even in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the global history of the relationship between Buddhism and medicine remains largely untold. This book is a comprehensive and accessible exploration of the interplay between Buddhism and medicine across the past two and a half millennia. C. Pierce Salguero meticulously traces the interconnected threads linking ideas, practices, and texts from various eras and regions. He demonstrates that Buddhism has played a pivotal role in facilitating cross-cultural medical exchange globally, and that Buddhist knowledge served as the foundation for many traditional practices that continue to thrive today throughout Asia.

While Buddhist medicine has always been deeply rooted in local contexts and exhibits significant variations across cultures, Salguero identifies key patterns that have persisted throughout this long history. This book will be a valuable resource for scholars, students, and practitioners of both Buddhism and complementary and alternative medicine.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231185264