Briana Brightly

When imagining the production of Buddhist art, few picture the artist observing corpses, studying materia medica, or concocting remedies. Yet, this is precisely what occurred in early modern Tibet. This project investigates the unprecedented collaboration between physicians and Buddhist artists during the "golden age" of Tibetan medicine. Focusing on the images, texts, and practices that resulted from these encounters, this study argues that this cross-fertilization of knowledge transformed both medical practice and the techniques of Buddhist image-making in Tibet. By emphasizing the production of images—rather than their consumption—this project promises to open up new possibilities for how scholars of Buddhism imagine “the sacred” in relation to “the scientific."