This lecture will use the case of Tibetan medicine to introduce the notion of “Asian medical industries” and show that so-called “traditional” Asian medicines have become an integral part of modern Asia. As such, they need to be understood not as cultural or epistemic systems, as has been common so far, but as a prime domain where Asian transformations – sociocultural, political, economic, ecological – manifest and become visible. They are, in other words, a particularly good place to gauge the pulse ocontemporary Asia.

Moving between the everyday practice of Tibetan doctors and booming Asian medical industries, and between a remote Tibetan village and Asia’s global ascendancy, this lecture traces the mutual incorporation and adaptation of local culture/societies and a supposedly universal capitalism. In doing so, it shows that the practice of Asian “traditional” medicine is directly connected, and highly responsive, to large-scale transformations in and of regions like Tibet, and can thus provide unique insights into the complexities of contemporary Asia.