Health authorities worldwide are struggling to evaluate, regulate and control ever-increasing amounts of “traditional medicines” sold and consumed in their countries. At the same time, those involved in the traditional pharmaceutical industry often lack a clear vision of how this industry is unfolding and functioning on a larger scale.
The Ratimed project is therefore designed to deliver the empirical data and critical analyses needed by policy-makers and stakeholders to better understand the emerging transnational Sowa Rigpa industry and market.
Simultaneously, it contributes to cutting-edge scholarship on a new type of pharmaceutical assemblage that reconfigures biological, cultural, political and economic ontologies in contemporary Asia.
Our approach is collaborative. This project was designed in dialogue with Sowa Rigpa experts and stakeholders in all four countries, and will remain open to suggestions from the people we work with. In order to ensure a two-way flow of knowledge, we will share and discuss the results through a variety of media and platforms, including academic publications, conferences and workshops, public media, and this website.
Tidwell 2018. 5th Annual Tibetan and Western Integrative Medicine Symposium: Constitutions, Metabolic Profiles, and the Microbiome: Comparative Methodologies on Tibetan Medical and Biomedical Diagnostic Types & Clinical Perspectives, Pharmacological Approaches and Research Studies in Tibetan Medicine: Tensions in Tradition and Modernity. Invited papers, Oct 5&6, Stanford University, USA
Tidwell 2018. Emory University Symposium on Building Transdisciplinary Capacity for Tibetan Medical Research: A Retrospective on Clinical and Pharmacological Research in Tibetan Medicine up to the Present & Ways of Knowing and Establishing Valid Criteria: Highlighting Key Issues in Clinical and Pharmacological Research in Tibetan Medicine. Symposium organizer & presenter, Oct 2, Atlanta, USA
HK01.com 2019. 印度與中國就「藏藥」申遺爭奪戰持續 (India and China continue fight over Tibetan medicine). Nov 25
ORF Science 2019. Tibetische Medizin als Wirtschaftsfaktor. Sep 27
ÖAW 2019. Tibetische Medizin verbreitet sich in Asien rasant. Sep 27
Kronen Zeitung 2017. Ganzheitliche Heilung. Page 45, Sep 26
New York Times 2017. China and India file rival claims over Tibetan medicine. July 27 – see also Haaretz (Israel), Economic Times (India), Business Standard (India), Voice of America (Tibetan)
ÖAW 2017. Tibets Medizin auf dem Vormarsch. Feb 14