Page 48 - EH70
P. 48
46 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES
Medicine In Early Buddhism
By Dr Pierce Salguero
Although never its primary concern, Buddhist Medicine In
the Pāli Buddhist Canon (first written Transnational Context
down in first century BCE Sri Lanka)
The spread of Buddhism to
contains a great amount of material
other parts of Asia in the first
pertinent to the history of Indian
millennium CE was one of the
medicine. Medical ideas appearing in
most significant examples of
the Pāli Canon include the doctrines
sustained cross-cultural exchange
of the Four Elements (Earth, Water,
in world history. This transmission
Fire, and Wind) and the associated
included the introduction of a
doṣa (defects or humors). These
large amount of medical material
became foundational to both
that was embedded within
Buddhist and Āyurvedic medicine, Buddhist writings. Influential
Pierce is a transdisciplinary and are also similar to concepts from
aspects of Buddhist medicine
scholar of health humanities Greco-Roman and Islamic medicine, included doctrines such as the Four
who is fascinated by historical although each tradition would Elements and tridoṣa, Indian and
and contemporary intersections interpret these doctrines in unique Southeast Asian pharmaceuticals,
between Buddhism, medicine, ways. Buddhist medical deities (including
and cross cultural exchange. their hagiographies, rituals, and
He holds a Ph.D. in History of There is every indication that iconography), medical spaces such
Medicine from the Johns Hopkins medicine, nursing, and hospice as dispensaries and hospices within
School of Medicine (2010), and was practiced among the early monastic complexes, the ideal of
Indian monastic communities.
teach Asian history, medicine, monks as efficacious healers, and
The monastic codes, or Vinaya,
and religion at Penn State several core medical metaphors
of the various Buddhist schools that structured Buddhist medical
University’s Abington College,
contain guidelines and narrative thought in places as far away as
located near Philadelphia.
descriptions of medical procedures
Tibet, China, Japan, Mongolia, and
such as herbal and mineral Southeast Asia.
The major theme in his treatments, dietary regulation,
scholarship is discovering and even surgery. Additionally,
Medical knowledge explicitly
the role of Buddhism in the the accounts of Chinese pilgrims associated with Buddhism
global transmission and local written in the mid-first millennium lost favor in India, replaced by
reception of knowledge about CE tell us that medicine was an Āyurvedic and Tantric healing
health, disease, and the body. important part of the training of traditions associated with
He approaches this topic using monks at the Indian mahāvihāras, Hinduism, and other parts
methodologies from history, the great monastic “universities.” of the Buddhist world—like
religious studies, translation Nālandā, for example, was famed as northwestern India, Pakistan,
studies, literary studies, and an international center for medical Afghanistan, Central Asia, and
training, and monastics from all over
ethnography. Indonesia—lost the tradition when
Asia came to study in the seventh
converting to Islam. Nevertheless,
and eighth centuries.
Buddhist medicine remains vitally
