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Taming the Poisonous: Mercury, Toxicity, and Safety in Tibetan Medical Practice

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Barbara Gerke at University of Vienna
Barbara Gerke
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Available OPEN ACCESS as pdf and html. This rich ethnographic and socio-historical account uncovers how toxicity and safety are expressed transculturally in a globalizing world. For the first time, it unpacks the "pharmaceutical nexus" of mercury in Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) where, since the thirteenth century, it has mainly been used in the form of tsotel. Tsotel, an organometallic mercury sulfide compound, is added in small amounts to specific medicines to enhance the potency of other ingredients. In concordance with tantric Buddhist ideas, Tibetan medical practitioners confront and tame poisonous substances, and instead of avoiding or expelling them, transform them into potent medicines and elixirs. Recently, the UN Environment Programme's global ban on mercury, the Minamata Convention, has sparked debates on the use of mercury in Asian medicines. As Asian medical traditions increasingly intersect with biomedical science and technology, what is at stake when Tibetan medical practitioners in India and Nepal, researchers, and regulators negotiate mercury's toxicity and safety? Who determines what is "toxic" and what is "safe," and how? What does this mean for the future of traditional Asian medical and pharmaceutical practices?
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Mercury, Toxicity, and Safety in Tibetan Medical Practice
Barbara Gerke
TAMING THE POISONOUS
This rich ethnographic and socio-historical account uncovers how toxicity
and safety are expressed transculturally in a globalizing world. For the
first time, it unpacks the “pharmaceutical nexus” of mercury in Tibetan
medicine (Sowa Rigpa) where, since the thirteenth century, it has mainly
been used in the form of tsotel. Ts ote l, an organometallic mercury sulfide
compound, is added in small amounts to specific medicines to enhance
the potency of other ingredients. In concordance with tantric Buddhist
ideas, Tibetan medical practitioners confront and tame poisonous
substances, and instead of avoiding or expelling them, transform them
into potent medicines and elixirs.
Recently, the UN Environment Programme’s global ban on mercury, the
Minamata Convention, has sparked debates on the use of mercury in
Asian medicines. As Asian medical traditions increasingly intersect with
biomedical science and technology, what is at stake when Tibetan
medical practitioners in India and Nepal, researchers, and regulators
negotiate mercury’s toxicity and safety? Who determines what is “toxic”
and what is “safe,” and how? What does this mean for the future of
traditional Asian medical and pharmaceutical practices?
The author
Barbara Gerke (M.Sc., D.Phil., University of Oxford) is a social and medi-
cal anthropologist researching Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa), mainly in
Himalayan regions. She has been the principal investigator of several re-
search projects on Tibetan medicine. Her current FWF (Austrian Science
Fund) project “Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist Ritual” is
based at the University of Vienna.
Heidelberg Studies on Transculturality, Vol. 7
388 p.
Hardcover 49,90 EUR
Softcover 36,90 EUR
ISBN 978-3-96822-041-3 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-042-0 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-3-96822-043-7 (Softcover)
Publication date: April 8, 2021.
Language: English
Keywords: Tibetan Medicine / Sowa Rigpa ·
Medical Anthropology · Mercury Toxicity ·
Minamata Convention · Mercury in Asian Medicine
Available from bookshops or directly via
heiup-orders@ub.uni-heidelberg.de
https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.746
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