CONVENOR: DR. BARBARA GERKE, MSc (Lise-Meitner Senior Research Fellow, ISTB)

MORNING SESSION

Translation Issues and Medico-Ritual Identification of Potent Substances

9:00 (s.t.): Tea/coffee and short welcome address

9:15 - 9:45: DR. MED. FLORIAN PLOBERGER B. AC., MA: Translating substance names & Tibetan pharmacological ideas of substances and their potency, based on the Four Treatises

9:45 - 10:15: ANNA SEHNALOVA, MA (PhD Cand. University of Oxford, UK and Charles University, Prague): Exploring Bonpo mendrup ritual texts: On flexibilities of interpretation, potencies of ritual and medicinal substances, and the implications for their translation

10:15 - 10:30: Tea/coffee break

10:30 - 11:00: Round circle discussion of the first two presentations

11:00 - 11:30: Dr. CATHY CANTWELL, MA (University of Oxford, UK; Ruhr-Universität Bochum, KHK, Germany): Substances used in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist rituals: Buddhist tantric understandings of their potencies and questions of comparison with Tibetan medical understandings

11:30 - 12:00: LOPON P. OGYAN TANZIN RINPOCHE (Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh and Payingdem Village, Arunachal Pradesh, India): Preparing potent substances for Buddhist tantric rituals

12:00 - 12:30: Round circle discussion of the second two presentations

12:30 - 2:00: Lunch break

AFTERNOON SESSION

Materiality, Efficacy, and the Politics of Substances

2:00 - 2:30: JAN VAN DER VALK, MA (PhD Cand., University of Kent, UK): Situated knowledge and botanical identification, Ingoldian materiality, and the reformulation of Tibetan healing materials between India and Switzerland

2:30 - 3:00: DR. HERBERT SCHWABL (PADMA AG, Switzerland): Sanitizing European herbal materia medica: The loss of potency in modern European herbalism

3:00 - 3:30: Tea/coffee break with round circle discussion of the first two afternoon presentations

3:30 - 4:00: DR. BARBARA GERKE, MSC: Potent substances in Tibetan multicompound formulas: Anthropological considerations

4:00 - 5:00: Open discussion (Discussant: DR. MED. KATHARINA SABERNIG MA, Medical University of Vienna)