New Open Access Publication by HASP - Crafting Potency: Sowa Rigpa Artisanship across the Himalayas
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03. Februar 2026
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Aktuelles
Crafting Potency by Barbara Gerke, Jan M.A. van der Valk, Tawni L. Tidwell and Calum Blaikie investigates the intricate interweaving of knowledge, practice, and materials through which potency is sculpted in Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine). Informed by Tibetan medical literature and extensive fieldwork with practitioners (amchis) from Ladakh, Dharamsala, and Kathmandu, the authors explore how potency is understood and manipulated in the making of multi-ingredient medicines. Taking inspiration from Tim Ingold’s ecologically attuned phenomenology and Pamela Smith’s concept of “artisanal epistemologies,”potency is presented as efficacy-in-becoming—a fluid capacity sculpted and layered through skilled artisanship, ritual, and environment, rather than a fixed property of stable substances. Highlighting the deep immersion of amchis in their social, ecological, technical, and spiritual lifeworlds—and exploring what changes when knowledge is transmitted through institutional rather than lineage-based training—the book contributes nuanced practice-based perspectives to the anthropology of craft and the history of science.
The complete PDF of the book as well as the individual chapters are available for free download on our HASP platform. Hard- and softcover editions have also been published and can be purchased from bookstores and online booksellers.
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