Details

All activities

Dr. Barbara Gerke, MSc

barbara.gerke@univie.ac.at

https://www.univie.ac.at/preciouspills/

McGrath, W., Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2025). Introduction: Responding to Epidemic Outbreaks in Tibetan Contexts. In B. Gerke, W. A. McGrath, & J. van der Valk (Eds.), Responding to Epidemic Outbreaks in Tibetan Contexts (Vol. 77, pp. 5-11). Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO) - UMR 8155. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_77.pdf

Gerke, B., Van der Valk, J., & McGrath, W. (Eds.) (2025). Responding to Epidemic Outbreaks in Tibetan Contexts. Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO) - UMR 8155. Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines

Sangmo, R., & Gerke, B. (2025). The Role of the Men-Tsee-Khang During COVID-19: Retrospective Reflections on Sowa Rigpa Pandemic Responses from Dharamsala. In B. Gerke, W. A. McGrath, & J. van der Valk (Eds.), Responding to Epidemic Outbreaks in Tibetan Contexts (Vol. 77, pp. 27-57). Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO) - UMR 8155. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_77.pdf

Gerke, B., & Ploberger, F. (2025). Translating “Immunity” in Sowa Rigpa: Neologisms of Protection and Prevention. In B. Gerke, W. A. McGrath, & J. van der Valk (Eds.), Responding to Epidemic Outbreaks in Tibetan Contexts (pp. 58–94). Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO) - UMR 8155. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_77.pdf

Gerke, B., & Samdrup, Y. (2025). Pandemic Causation and Protection: Health and More-Than-Human Relations in Phushar Village, Bhutan. Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo, 27(1). https://doi.org/10.4000/145or

Gerke, B. (2024). Potent substances and the art of medicine-making in Tibetan traditions. Radio show

Gerke, B. (2024). Sowa Rigpa, Vajrayana Buddhism, and COVID-19 Vaccines in India and Bhutan. Asian Medicine, 19, 164-189. https://brill.com/view/journals/asme/19/1/article-p164_7.xml

Gerke, B. (2024). “Potency” and “poison” in the making of medicines: A visit to a private Tibetan pharmacy near Dharamsala. Web publication

Gerke, B., & Singh, S. (2024). An introduction to Sowa Rigpa accessory tools used for medicine making in Spiti. Web publication

Gerke, B. (2024). Visual Dynamics of Contagion: Poisons and Antidotes in Tibetan Medical Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. CURARE - JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 46(2), 15-29.

Arya, P. Y., Van der Valk, J., & Gerke, B. (2023). Tashi Yangphel Tashigang. Web publication, Treasury of Lives.

Gerke, B. (2023). Mixing Medicines: Ecologies of Care in Buddhist Siberia by Tatiana Chudakova. New York: Fordham University Press, 2021. pp. 344. Medical Anthropology Quarterly: international journal for the cultural and social analysis of health. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12770

Gerke, B., Van der Valk, J., & McGrath, W. A. (2023). Thinking about Contagion and Epidemic Disease in Tibetan and Himalayan Medical Contexts: Introducing the “Pandemic Narrative” Research Project. Web publication

Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2022). Potent Substances project expo: Sowa Rigpa pandemic responses. Web publication

Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2022). Working with calcite: Potency as process. Web publication

Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2022). Tibetan Materialities workshop reflections: University of Copenhagen, 12-13 May 2022. Web publication

Gerke, B. (2022). Allegiance to whose community? Effects of Men-Tsee-Khang policies on the role and identity of amchi in the Darjeeling Hills. In L. Pordié, & S. Kloos (Eds.), Healing at the Periphery: Ethnographies of Tibetan Medicine in India Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478021759-008

Gerke, B. (2022). Review of A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine, written by C. Pierce Salguero. Asian Medicine, 17(2), 328-330. https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341519

Gerke, B. (2021). Taming the Poisonous: Mercury, Toxicity, and Safety in Tibetan Medical Practice. (1 ed.) Heidelberg University Publishing. Heidelberg Studies on Transculturality Vol. 7 https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.746

Gerke, B. (2020). Tibetan Medicine, Buddhism and Psychiatry: Mental Health and Healing in a Tibetan Exile Community, written by Susannah Deane. Asian Medicine, 15(1), 197-208. https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341467

When Amchis become authors: AYUSH rules, Sowa Rigpa medical education reforms, and the Push to Write - reflections from Ladakh, India

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

3 Jun 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Confidence in Times of Crisis or Crisis of Confidence? Governance, Trust, and Tradition: Sowa Rigpa and the Covid-19 Pandemic in India and Bhutan

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

11 Apr 2025

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Exploring an anti-epidemic protective pill recipe in the fifteenth century Tibetan medical work "Relics of Countless Oral Instructions" by Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjé (1439-1475)

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

18 Nov 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Artisanship and Sowa Rigpa Medicine Making: Ethnographies from the Himalayas

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

21 Oct 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Synergies of potency: The production and consecration of protective pills during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bhutan

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

15 Oct 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Academic Writing in Sowa Rigpa: How to Summarize and Review Medical Literature

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

3 Sept 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Sowa Rigpa and End-of-Life Care: Cicely Saunders Hospice Ideas in the Context of Ladakh’s Hospice Movements

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

2 Sept 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

What Makes a Substance Potent? Researching and Writing about Potency (nus pa) in Medicine Making in Sowa Rigpa

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

29 Aug 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Chapter 1 of the project book Crafting Potency: Menjor, Materiality, Artisanship

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

27 Jul 2024 → 28 Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Causation and Protection during Pandemic Crises: Health, Prophecy, and More-Than-Human Relations in Pushar Village, Bhutan

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

18 Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Why and when qualitative research methods make sense

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

3 May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Placing the Himalaya in context: Ethnographic positionality, Buddhist longevity rituals, and Tibetan medical pandemic responses

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

9 Jan 2024

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

The multiple potencies of nine aromatic substances: The Tibetan anti-epidemic amulet formula Nakpo Gujor

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

30 Nov 2023 → 1 Dec 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Taming the Poisonous

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

22 Nov 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Tibetan Buddhist Longevity Rituals and Traditional Medicine in India

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

13 Nov 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

European Conference for South Asian Studies

Van der Valk, J. (Speaker) & Gerke, B. (Speaker)

28 Jul 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

COVID-19 in Sowa Rigpa: Approaching Epidemics in the Texts and Practices of Tibet and the Himalayas

Gerke, B. (Speaker), Van der Valk, J. (Speaker) & McGrath, W. (Speaker)

23 Jun 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Smellscapes of Protection: NAKPO GUJOR, The 9-Compound Black Pill

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

23 Jun 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Sowa Rigpa Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Material Manifestations of Protection and Treatment.

Gerke, B. (Speaker) & Van der Valk, J. (Speaker)

21 Jun 2023

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist Rituals

Gerke, B. (Speaker), Van der Valk, J. (Speaker), Tidwell, T. L. (Speaker) & Blaikie, C. (Speaker)

4 Nov 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Sowa Rigpa Infectious Disease Etiologies, Buddhist Rituals, and COVID-19 Vaccination Compliance

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

28 Oct 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Continuity of Potency: Ethnographies of Lineage Substances (phab rta)

Gerke, B. (Speaker) & Blaikie, C. (Speaker)

13 Jul 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Tibetan Spiritual Ecologies of Substances: The Anti-Epidemic “9-Compound Black Pill” (nag po dgu sbyor)

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

6 Jul 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Depicting poisons, contagion, and antidotes in Tibetan medical paintings of the 17th century

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

4 Jun 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Precious and Potent: Tibetan Medical Pill Traditions

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

23 May 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public

Artisanship in Sowa Rigpa Medicine Making

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

16 May 2022

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

When Practice Contradicts Texts: The Use of Panacea in Sowa Rigpa

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

27 Jul 2021

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Potency, poison cultures, and the politics of toxicity: Processing mercury in Asian medicines

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

21 Nov 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Artisanship and "Potency-in-Becoming"

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

14 Nov 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

What Makes a Substance Potent? Senses, Substances, and the Art of Tibetan Pharmacology

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

21 Oct 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Enhancing the Potency of Substances in Sowa Rigpa: Chongzhi (cong zhi), the ‘Essence of Stones’

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

11 Jul 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

"Potency-in-Becoming": Artisanship among Amchi Practitioners Making Sowa Rigpa Medicines in Ladakh

Gerke, B. (Speaker) & Van der Valk, J. (Speaker)

31 Jan 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Biographies of Tibetan Precious Pills: A Project Exhibition at ISTB

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

18 Jan 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Sterben am Ganges: Hospize in Varanasi, Indien

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

10 Jan 2019

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Starting and running an NGO in India in my Twenties

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

4 Oct 2018

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Tod und Sterben in Indien

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

14 Jun 2018

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

The Globalization of Asian Medicines

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

14 Nov 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Precious Substances in Tibetan Pharmacopoeia: Exploring Tibetan Jewel Pill Ingredients

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

2 Nov 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

On the History and Manufacturing of Tibetan Precious Pills

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

26 Sept 2017 → 29 Sept 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Challenges in Translating Epistemologies of Toxicity in Tibetan Medical Texts and Ethnographic Encounters

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

11 Aug 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

The Potency of Preciousness: Gems as Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa Pharmacopoeia

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

8 Aug 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Entangled Efficacies in the Biographies of Tibetan Precious Pills

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

2 Aug 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Reformulations in Sowa Rigpa: Thinking about “Classical Formulas” Taking the Example of Tibetan Precious Pills

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

14 Feb 2017

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science

Mercury as a chülen in Tibetan traditions

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

21 Oct 2016 → 22 Oct 2016

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Potent substances in Tibetan multicompound formulas: Anthropological considerations

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

1 Sept 2016 → 4 Sept 2016

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

The Signature of Recipes: Genre, Authenticity and the Development of Tibetan Precious Pill Formulas

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

16 Jun 2016 → 24 Jun 2016

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

On the Sensory Engagement with Poisonous Substances: 'Taming' Poisons into Elixirs in Tibetan Pharmacological Practices

Gerke, B. (Speaker)

13 Jun 2016

Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Other

Pandemic Narratives of Tibet and the Himalayas

Gerke, B. (Project Lead), Van der Valk, J. (Scientific Project Staff) & McGrath, W. (Scientific Project Staff)

1/12/22 → 30/11/25

Project: Research funding

Potent Substances in Sowa Riga and Buddhist Rituals

Gerke, B. (Project Lead) & Van der Valk, J. (Scientific Project Staff)

11/06/18 → 10/09/24

Project: Research funding

Biografien Tibetischer Kostbarpillen

Gerke, B. (Project Lead)

11/05/15 → 31/01/18

Project: Research funding

Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies

Spitalgasse 2
1090 Wien
Room: 2B-O1-12

barbara.gerke@univie.ac.at