We are happy to announce two open-access book chapter publications in the edited volume: Among Tibetan Materialities: Materials and Material Cultures of Tibet and the Himalayas, edited by Emma Martin, Trine Brox, und Diana Lange (Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2025).
During this FWF-Project Barbara Gerke (PI) and Jan M. A. van der Valk (post doc) collaborated with two early-career Indian anthropologists, Stuti Singh and Mridul Surbhi, on Sowa Rigpa in the Western Himalayas.
You can download the two chapters here:
by Surbhi and Van der Valk
This chapter explores how Himalayan Sowa Rigpa practitioners (amchi) work with the natural world through their senses, skills, and relationships to place. Drawing on Tim Ingold’s ideas of dwelling and materials, it presents ethnographic accounts of herbal harvesting and medicine making in Spiti and Kinnaur. The authors show how these practices link people, landscapes, and Sowa Rigpa in what they call a “ritualized meshwork.”
Kunzum Temple (right) with stupa and prayer flags at Kunzum Pass, connecting Lahaul and Spiti. Photograph by Mridul Surbhi.
Menjor tools and the artisanal epistemology of making Sowa Rigpa medicines in Spiti
by Singh and Gerke
This chapter examines how amchi in Spiti work with their tools while making medicines, focusing on the sensory relationship between the practitioners and their materials. It explores how grinding stones and other medicine-making tools embody potency through use, skill, and ritual. Drawing on Pamela Smith’s idea of “artisanal epistemology,” the authors highlight embodied forms of knowledge in amchi medical practice.
Amchi Sonam Dorje uses a fox leg to brush the ground-up medicine, 2022. Photograph by Stuti Singh.
Barbara Gerke wrote the postscript to the book.
There will be a book launch with discussion at 11.30am (GMT) on December 16, 2025.
Free tickets for the event can be booked here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-among-tibetan-materialities-tickets-1952027439619?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl [eventbrite.co.uk]
Photo: Diana Lange, 2025.