Excrements and Water from the Inside of Shoes. Remedies of the Dreckapotheke

27.05.2016 15:15 - 16:45

Petra Maurer | Kommission für zentral- und ostasiatische Studien, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Tibetan manuscripts on hippology and hippiatry show some peculiarities as regards the substances applied for medical treatment. Besides herbs that are used for internal and external cures remedies of the so-called Dreckapotheke are applied, among these earth from a mouse hole, excrements like dog shit or water that has been used to wash the inside of shoes. Other unconventional treatments are rituals, mantras and paper or notes with mantras or prayers which are given orally (za yig). But a deeper look onto traditional Tibetan medicine reveals that these unconventional remedies are not unique to medicine for horses but were also mentioned in traditional Tibetan medical texts for humans. In the famous Four Tantras (rGyud bzhi) the shit of a pigeon for instance is the component of remedy used to heal rtsa gsher, a disease of the uterus. Medicine prepared from the Dreckapotheke is also part of our own medical heritage and are found for instance in the Rossarzneibücher, treatises that go back to the collection of cures by the German Master Albrant, a blacksmith at the court of Friedrich II.

Organiser:
Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde
Location:
Seminarraum 1, AAKH, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7, 1090 Wien