Medicine is central to the religion of Buddhism, and Buddhism has been an vitally important vehicle for transnational exchange of medicine globally. In all periods and all locations across the world, Buddhism has provided individuals with tools to frame and understand illness, has shaped health-seeking behaviors in conscious and unconscious ways, and has offered a range of popular therapies and institutional structures for dealing with the sick. Comprising the major focus of my scholarly work, the relationship between Buddhism and medicine is explored in detail in the materials below….


Books

Focusing on the introduction and assimilation of Indian medicine in medieval China (2014).
A brief overview of traditional medicine in Thailand for scholars and practitioners (2016).
Special issue: “Buddhism & Healing,” focusing on historical and contemporary (2017).
Demonstrating the richness of Buddhist healing as a way to explore cross-cultural exchange (2020).
Translations of numerous texts about Buddhism and medicine from across Asia (2017).
Translations of texts and ethnographic transcripts about Buddhist healing in the modern era (2020).
Summarizing a decade of research on Buddhist medicine, and accompanying the anthologies (2022).


Selected scholarly articles & chapters on Buddhist Medicine

  • 2023, “‘Meditation Sickness’ in Medieval Chinese Buddhism and the Contemporary West.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 30: 169–211. Open access.
  • 2022, “Beyond Mindfulness: Buddhism & Health in the US.” Pacific World Fourth Series 3. Open access.
  • 2021, “Buddhist Healthcare in Philadelphia: An Ethnographic Experiment in Student-Centered, Engaged, and Inclusive Pedagogy.” Religions 12.6. Open access.
  • 2021, “The Role of Buddhist Studies in Fostering Metadisciplinary Conversations and Improving Pedagogical Collaborations.” Religions 12.1. Open access.
  • 2019, “Varieties of Buddhist Healing in Multiethnic Philadelphia,” Religions 10.48. Open access.
  • 2018, “Buddhist Medicine and its Circulation.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Ed. David Ludden. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 2018, “A Missing Link in the History of Chinese Medicine: A Research Note on the Medical Contents in the Chinese Buddhist Taishō Tripiṭaka,” East Asian Science, Medicine, and Technology 47: 93–119. Open access.
  • 2018, “‘This Fathom-Long Body’: Bodily Materiality & Ascetic Ideology in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Scriptures,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 92: 237–60.
  • 2018, “Healing and/or Salvation? The Relationship Between Religion and Medicine in Medieval Chinese Buddhism,” Working Paper Series of the HCAS: Multiple Secularities — Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities 4. Open access.
  • 2017, “Medicine in the Chinese Buddhist Canon: Selected Translations.” Asian Medicine 12.1/2: 79–294. (Co-authored with four other contributors.) Open access.
  • 2017, “Cultural Associations of Water in Early Chinese and Indian Religion and Medicine,” Special Issue: Water and Asia, Education About Asia 22.2: 23–28. Open access.
  • 2017, “Honoring the Teachers, Constructing the Tradition: The Role of History and Religion in the Waikrū Ceremony of a Thai Traditional Medicine Hospital,” in Hans Pols, Michele Thompson, and John Harley Warner (eds.), Translating the Body: Medical Education in Southeast Asia (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press).
  • 2015, “Reexamining the Categories and Canons of Chinese Buddhist Healing,” Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies 28: 35–66. Open access.
  • 2014, “Medicine,” Oxford Bibliographies Online: Buddhism. Last update: 2018.
  • 2013, “Fields of Merit, Harvests of Health: Some Notes on the Role of Medical Karma in the Popularization of Buddhism in Early Medieval China,” Asian Philosophy 23.4: 341–9.
  • 2009, “The Buddhist Medicine King in Literary Context: Reconsidering an Early Medieval Example of Indian influence on Chinese Medicine and Surgery,” History of Religions 48.3: 183-210.

See a complete list of my academic publications.


Recorded lectures & podcasts


Multimedia & documentary films

The Jivaka Project Philadelphia is a collaborative project with filmmaker and historian Lan A. Li. This is a multimedia ethnography exploring the role of Buddhist institutions, practices, and cultural orientations in the American healthcare landscape between 2015 and 2020. The website encompasses a series of professionally produced documentary films in addition to photos, audio, and other data captured by student researchers at about 50 institutions in the city. Covering various intersections between Buddhism and health, these are intended for use in the classroom and are accompanied by background information and suggestions for further readings.