Abstract
The development of medical theories and concepts is not isolated from the societal “Zeitgeist” of any medical culture. Depending on the purpose and the audience addressed, different metaphors are used to explain different medical content. Doubtlessly, Tibetan medicine is associated with Tibetan Buddhism and various medical topics are linked to Buddhist knowledge. In addition to the religious link, medical texts and terms also make use of nomadic or even military metaphor. In anatomical language, metaphor and metonym are usually based on visual or morphological similarities. In the case of physiological, pathological, or therapeutic processes, metaphor often deals with dynamic and strategic elements drawn from comparisons with everyday life and other spheres of activity. These models commonly relate to specific historical and cultural backgrounds. Let us think of the European “body republic” in Renaissance medical theory or the theory of the “cell state” devised by Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), which explains the concept of cellular pathology. Asian examples that use state functions as metaphors for the hierarchy of internal organs in Chinese and Tibetan medicine are well-known. In addition to these prominent state models, Tibetan medical language and its visual representation is rich in metaphor. In this preliminary paper not all occurring metaphors can be discussed in depth, however different types of Tibetan medical metaphor will be compared and contextualized with non-Tibetan metaphors from other contemporary and historical medical cultures.
Highlights
Tibetan and Buddhist medicine, but the entire general history of medicine is rich in metaphorical concepts, descriptions, and designations
In modern anatomy in Tibet, do we find biological, technical, military, architectural metaphor, and metaphors that refer to other body parts
Metaphors are ubiquitous in Tibetan medical concepts
Summary
Tibetan and Buddhist medicine, but the entire general history of medicine is rich in metaphorical concepts, descriptions, and designations. While arboreal and state metaphors may be regarded as the best-known metaphors of Tibetan medicine, various types of hidden metaphor can be found in many other chapters of the Explanatory Tantra. Metaphorical strategies for dealing with patients and their diseases and metaphorical names in the field of anatomy and pharmacology will be reviewed These examples borrowed from different fields such as religion, nature, military, politics, or architecture will be compared with metaphor in different medical cultures in order to provide a transcultural context and to question how far these metaphors can still be applied in a modern medical system.
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