Tawni Lynn Tidwell

This monograph investigates the most influential epistemological and ontological contributions from Buddhism on the development of Tibetan medical discourse on embodiment, particularly drawing from pramana theory on valid evidence in its transmission to Tibet and co-development as an intellectual tradition. This work examines how pramana theory becomes a cultural practice, namely in the Sowa Rigpa medical discourse of embodiment vis-à-vis two analytical objects: physician as embodied diagnostic instrument, and patient embodying health and disease processes. It illuminates the pramana influences and textual intersections with Tibetan medical literature from the 13th to 17th century CE along with several contemporary contributions that re-frame Dharmakirtian empiricism for body knowledge.