Jan van der Valk

Jan van der Valk

Contact:

E-Mail: jan.vandervalk@univie.ac.at
ORCID: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-7409-253X

Jan van der Valk (PhD, University of Kent) is a scholar-practitioner specializing in Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine). Drawing on a multidisciplinary training in anthropology, ethnobotany, and biology, his interests revolve around Eurasian medicinal plants, traditional pharmaceutical processes, more-than-human ecologies, and knowledge transmission. He mainly conducts ethnographic fieldwork in the Himalayan valleys of Ladakh (India) and Kathmandu (Nepal). Jan works part-time as a postdoctoral researcher, contributing to two Austrian Science Fund research projects which he co-conceived with his colleagues: Potent Substances (2018–2023) and Pandemic Narratives (2023–present). Besides academic work, Jan maintains a private Tibetan medical practice in Belgium, while also collaborating with his teacher Gen. Pasang Yonten Arya as the editor in chief of Bedurya Publications.

His publications include an introduction, journal article, and perspective piece in a HIMALAYA special issue he co-edited titled Approaching Potent Substances in Medicine and Ritual across Asia (2019). He has also co-edited and contributed to a blogpost series on early Asian medical responses to COVID-19 (Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots, 2020), published a chapter on the clash of Tibetan medicinal plant trade and conservation efforts in Northern India (Asian Medical Industries, 2022), and co-authored a biographical entry on Tashi Yangphel Tashigang for Treasury of Lives.

Online resources

Potent Substances project: https://potentsubstances.univie.ac.at/

Pandemic Narratives project: https://pandemic-narratives.univie.ac.at/

Bedurya Publications: https://beduryapublications.org

All activities

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Jan Van der Valk, M.Sc. M.Sc. PhD

jan.vandervalk@univie.ac.at

Van der Valk, J. (Author). (2023). A sampling of online anglophone discussions on COVID-19. Web publication

Van der Valk, J. (Author). (2023). Gathering, cleaning, and preparing a local herb with Amchi Nawang Tsering (Nyi, Ladakh). Web publication

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

Van der Valk, J. (Author). (2023). Welcome to our new project website!. Web publication

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

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

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

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

Van der Valk, J. (2022). "Sourcery": Losing Track of Tibetan Medicinal Plants between Commerce and Conservation in Northern India. In S. Kloos, & C. Blaikie (Eds.), Asian Medical Industries: Contemporary Perspectives on Traditional Pharmaceuticals (pp. 227-252). Routledge. Needham Research Institute Series https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003218074-12

Craig, S. R. (Author), Gerke, B. (Author), & Van der Valk, J. (Author). (2020). Asian Medicines, COVID-19 and the Politics of Science: An Unpublished Letter to the Editor of Nature. Web publication

Arya, P. Y., & Van der Valk, J. (2020). A Conversation on the Causes of Covid-19 with a Senior Tibetan Doctor Living in Lockdown in Milan. Fieldsights. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/a-conversation-on-the-causes-of-covid-19-with-a-senior-tibetan-doctor-living-in-lockdown-in-milan

Craig, S. R., Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2020). Asian Medicines and Covid-19: An Introduction. Fieldsights. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/asian-medicines-and-covid-19-an-introduction

Craig, S. R., Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2020). Responding to an Unfolding Pandemic: Asian Medicines and Covid-19. Fieldsights. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/series/responding-to-an-unfolding-pandemic-asian-medicines-and-covid-19

Van der Valk, J. (Author). (2020). Making rejuvenating medicinal butter in the Swiss Alps with Dr. Pasang Yonten Arya. Web publication

Van der Valk, J. (2020). Dataset of illness classi fications in Sowa Rigpa: Compilations from the Oral Instructions Treatise of the Tibetan medical classic (Rgyud bzhi). Data in Brief, 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2020.105321

Van der Valk, J. (Author). (2020). Sowa Rigpa Clinics in Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal. Web publication

Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (Eds.) (2019). Materiality, Efficacy, and the Politics of Potent Substances across Asia. (1 ed.) Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies.

Van der Valk, J., & Schwabl, H. (2019). Challenging the Biomedical Notion of ‘Active Substance’: The Botanical Plasticity of Tibetan Medical Formulas . Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 39(1), 208-218. [18]. https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss1/18

Van der Valk, J. (2019). Garuda 5 (khyung lnga): Ecologies of Potency and the Poison-Medicine Spectrum of Sowa Rigpa’s Renowned ‘Black Aconite’ Formula. Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 39(1), 111-128. [14]. https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss1/14

Gerke, B., & Van der Valk, J. (2019). Introduction: Approaching Potent Substances in Medicine and Ritual across Asia. Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 39(1), 69-73.

European Conference for South Asian Studies

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker) & Barbara Gerke (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

Barbara Gerke (Speaker), Jan Van der Valk (Speaker) & William McGrath (Speaker)

23 Jun 2023

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

Early Online Sowa Rigpa Perspectives on COVID-19

Jan Van der Valk (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.

Barbara Gerke (Speaker) & Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

21 Jun 2023

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

Potent Substances in Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist Rituals

Barbara Gerke (Speaker), Jan Van der Valk (Speaker), Tawni Lynn Tidwell (Speaker) & Calum Blaikie (Speaker)

4 Nov 2022

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

Tibetan Medicine and Covid-19 in the Anthropocene: Diagnosing the Spiritual Revenge of Nature

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

8 Sep 2022

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

Beyond the Ethnographic Case Study: A Student-Practitioner-Anthropologist Learning (about) the Craft of Tibetan Medicinal Butter Preparation

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

12 Jul 2022

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

The Emerging Sowa Rigpa/Environment Interface in the Anthropocene: Reflections on Pandemic Response-Ability

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

6 Jul 2022

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

Modern Tibetan medical education and the widening doctor-pharmacist divide in Nepal: What’s the problem?

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

14 Jan 2020

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

The Link between Tibetan Medicine and Buddhism: A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

13 Nov 2019

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

How do Medicines Become Potent in Sowa Rigpa? Latour’s ‘Network’ versus Ingold’s ‘Meshwork’: an Applied Comparison of Theoretical Frameworks

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

11 Jul 2019

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

Tibetan Medicine, Vitality and Rejuvenation

Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

11 Apr 2019

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

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

Barbara Gerke (Speaker) & Jan Van der Valk (Speaker)

31 Jan 2019

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

Pandemic Narratives of Tibet and the Himalayas

Gerke, B., Van der Valk, J. & McGrath, W.

1/12/22 → 30/11/25

Project: Research funding

Potent Substances in Sowa Riga and Buddhist Rituals

Gerke, B. & Van der Valk, J.

11/06/18 → 10/09/24

Project: Research funding

Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies

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

jan.vandervalk@univie.ac.at