Transformation of Traditional Oriental Medicine in the Modern World

10.33876/2311-0546/2024-4/356-372

Authors

  • Valentina Kharitonova the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

Keywords:

traditional medicine, traditional medical system, Buryat-Tibetan traditional medicine, complementary medicine, alternative medicine

Abstract

The article examines one of the most important modern issues concerning the development of traditional medicines: their transformation into TMS – traditional medical systems. It is known that in some Asian countries (China, India, Vietnam, etc.) such TMS legitimately exist since the middle or end of the XX century; they are institutionalized and structured similarly to the conventional/biomedical healthcare system. TMS operates there in parallel with and in close interaction with the main medical system, with biomedicine as the primary educational basis for specialist training. Healthcare in these countries includes in its unified system a parallel with a second ministry or department, a complex structure of university training of specialists, specialized hospitals and clinics of various kinds – either separate or organized on the basis of complementarity, different pharmaceutical bases. At the same time, TMS, primarily from India and China, have long since spread to many other countries of the world and, as complementary or alternative forms of medicine, strive to form global forms (for example, the concept of "global Ayurveda" is already being used). The article first of all considers the specifics of the terminological apparatus associated with non-conventional medicine. Further the author analyzes the current situation of TM and TMS as it has developed to date in foreign countries, and compares it with what has been happening in the last three decades in the Russian Federation, primarily in the Republic of Buryatia and the Zabaykalsky Krai. Traditional medicine was initially introduced there with the practice of Buddhist lamas and with written sources from Tibet through Mongolia; later the Buryats on the basis of translated sources developed a relatively independent branch of Buryat-Tibetan medicine, which back in the XIX century spread first to St. Petersburg, and then to other cities and regions of the Russian Empire. Nowadays, in the main centers of traditional medicine in Buryatia and the Zabaykalsky Krai, the institutions of a medical system have been formed, making it possible to create a full-fledged TMS – a parallel, but closely intertwined with biomedicine branch of healthcare, which can easily become an alternative branch of healthcare in the Republic of Buryatia, where the traditional Buryat-Tibetan medicine has been institutionalized within the healthcare system since the 1980s. Currently, the Center for Oriental Medicine and its units are receiving a significant number of combatants for rehabilitation and are actively working in the field of restorative medicine.

Author Biography

  • Valentina Kharitonova, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

    Kharitonova, Valentina I. — Doctor of History, Chief Researcher, Head of the Department of Medical Anthropology, the Russian Academy of Sci­ences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: medanthro@mail.ru  

    For citation: Kharitonova, V. I. 2024. Transformation of Traditional Oriental Medicine in the Modern World. Herald of Anthro­pology (Vestnik Antropologii). 4: 356–372.   

    Funding: The study was carried out as a part of the research plan of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthro­pology.

    References
    1. Alekseenko, I. P. 1959. Ocherki o kitaiskoi narodnoi meditsine [Essays on Chinese Folk Medicine]. Kiev: Gosmedizdat USSR. 212 p.
    2. Aseeva, T. A. 2023. Tibetskaia meditsina: tekhnologiia, farmakologiia, farmakognoziia, terapiia, anatomiia, khirurgiia [Tibetan Medicine: Technology, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Therapy, Anatomy, Surgery]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura. 315 p.
    3. Badmaev, P. A. (1903) 1991. Osnovy vrachebnoi nauki Tibeta «Zhud-Shi» / Reprintnoe vosproizvedenie izdaniia «Glavnoe rukovodstvo po vrachebnoi nauke Tibeta. Zhud-Shi» [The Foundations of Medical Science in Tibet. Zhud-Shi. / Reprint of the Publication «The General Guide to Medical Science in Tibet. Gyuzhi»]. Moscow: Nauka. 256 p.
    4. Bromlei, Yu. V. et al. (eds.). 1975. Etnograficheskie aspekty izucheniia narodnoi meditsiny: Tezisy Vsesoiuznoi nauchnoi konferentsii (10–12 marta 1975 g.) [Ethnographic Aspects of the Study of Traditional Medicine: Theses of the All-Union Scientific Conference (March 10–12, 1975)]. Leningrad: Nauka. 93 p.
    5. Bromlei, Yu. V., and A. A. Voronov. 1976. Narodnaia meditsina kak predmet etnograficheskikh issledovanii [Folk Medicine as a Subject of Ethnographic Studies]. Sovetskaia etnografiia 5: 3–18.
    6. Dashieva, D. B. (ed.). 2001. Chzhud-shi: kanon tibetskoi meditsiny [Gyuzhi: Canon of Tibetan Medicine]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura. 766 p.
    7. Galperin, Ya. G. (ed.). 2000. Pravovye osnovy narodnoi meditsiny i tselitel’stva v Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Sbornik materialov) [The Legal Basis of Folk Medicine and Healing in the Russian Federation (Collection of Materials)]. Moscow: PMANTsR. 156 p.
    8. Kharitonova, V. I. 2010. Integratsiia meditsin v Rossii: idei i voploshchenie [Integration of Medicine in Russia: Ideas and Implementation]. In Razvitie traditsionnoi meditsiny v Rossii. Opyt, nauchnye issledovaniia, perspektivy: materialy nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem (20–21 avgusta 2010 g.) [Development of Traditional Medicine in Russia. Experience, Research, Perspectives: Materials of Scientific and Practical Conference with International Participation (August 20–21, 2010)], ed. by A. K. Mikheeva. Ulan-Ude: Izdatel’stvo GUZ RTsMP MZ RB. 97–102.
    9. Kharitonova, V. I. 2009. Integratsiia meditsinskikh sistem: ideia, praktika, chelovecheskii faktor [Integration of Medical Systems: Idea, Practice, Human Factor]. In Problemy sokhraneniia zdorov’ia v usloviiakh Severa i Sibiri: Trudy po meditsinskoi antropologii [Problems of Health Preservation in the Conditions of the North and Siberia: Works on Medical Anthropology], ed. by V. I. Kharitonova. Moscow: OAO “Tip. “Novosti”. 274–285.
    10. Kharitonova, V. I. 2010a. Idei komplementarnoi i integrativnoi meditsiny v sovremennoi Rossii [The Ideas of Complementary and Integrative Medicine in Modern Russia]. In Filosofskie problemy biologii i meditsiny. Vypusk 4. Fundamental’noe i prikladnoe: sbornik materialov 4-i ezhegodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii [Philosophical Problems of Biology and Medicine. Issue 4. The Fundamental and The Applied: The Collection of Materials of the 4th Annual Scientific-Practical Conference], ed. by V. I. Moiseev. Moscow: Printberri. 217–220.
    11. Kharitonova, V. I., and V. N. Potapov. 2011. Integrativnaia meditsina — eto meditsina budushchego [Integrative Medicine is the Medicine of the Future]. Meditsinskaia antropologiia i bioetika 1 (1). https://medanthro.ru/?page_id=747
    12. Lazarenko, V. G. 2007. Gosudarstvennoe upravlenie meditsinoi v Drevnem Kitae [State Medicine Management in Ancient China]. Problemy sotsial’noi gigieny i istoriia meditsiny 6: 58–60.
    13. Mikheeva, A. K., A. I. Bartanov, B. S. Sarieva, and E. A. Bartanova. 2011b. Tsentr vostochnoi meditsiny Ministerstva zdravookhraneniia Respubliki Buriatiia: integratsiia traditsionnoi meditsiny i prakticheskogo zdravookhraneniia [Center of Oriental Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Buryatia: Integration of Traditional Medicine and Practical Healthcare]. Meditsinskaia antropologiia i bioetika 1(11). https://medanthro.ru/?page_id=739
    14. Monasypova, L. I. 2018. Voprosy integratsii Aiurvedy v gosudarstvennye sistemy zdravookhraneniia: obrazovanie i dopusk k meditsinskoi deiatel’nosti [Issues of Integration of Ayurveda into Public Health Systems: Education and Admission to Medical Activities]. Meditsinskaia antropologiia i bioetika 2 (16). https://medanthro.ru/?page_id=3898
    15. Nikolaev, S. M., T. A. Aseeva, A. G. Mondodoev, L. N. Shantanova, Ya. G. Razuvaeva et al. 2017. Mnogovekovoi opyt razvitiia buriatskoi vetvi traditsionnoi meditsiny Rossii [The Long-Term Experience of Development of Traditional Medicine in Russia]. Acta Biomedica Scientifica 2 (3): 101–105. https://doi.org/10.12737/article_59f036042cbb94.29099154
    16. Pestriakov, A. P. 1975. Vsesoiuznaia konferentsiia po etnograficheskim aspektam izucheniia narodnoi meditsiny [All-Union Conference on Ethnographic Aspects of the Study of Folk Medicine]. Sovetskaia etnografiia 6: 156–160.
    17. Sima Qian. 2002. Istoricheskie zapiski. Shi tszi [Records of the Grand Historian. Shiji]. Vol. 8. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura. 252–273.
    18. Tszin Syn’-Chzhun. 1959. Kitaiskaia narodnaia meditsina [Chinese Folk Medicine]. Moscow: Znanie. 64 p.

Downloads

Published

22.12.2024

Issue

No. 4 (2024): Herald of Anthropology

Section

Medical Anthropology