"Houses of health" and monastic infirmaries: communal health in premodern South and Southeast Asia

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Key information

Date
Time
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Venue
Online
Event type
Seminar

About this event

This talk will address evidence regarding spaces of care in premodern Asia, asking what they looked like and what kind of protocols they may have implemented.

Sanskrit medical classics as well as Buddhist monastic codes outline various facilities and programmes blending the technical skills of physicians with ritualistic and holistic notions of wellbeing. Having presented key textual passages, the talk will then address Jayavarman VII's ārogyaśālā infrastructures. Here, epigraphic, architectural and art historical evidence outline an ambitious effort. However, many questions regarding care activities remain unanswered.

Organisers 

Jointly organized by CSEAS and the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme, this lecture series invites leading experts to share their latest insights and research on Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia. The series is hybrid in format consisting of both in-person and online lectures.  

This year’s series is convened by Dr Melissa Carlson | SOAS and Pim Fitzpayne | SOAS. 

Funding for this lecture series has been kindly provided by the Alphawood Foundation. 

About the speaker

Francesco Bianchini

Francesco Bianchini

Francesco Bianchini is currently a lecturer at the College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University. He was formerly a postdoctoral member of the Silk Roads Programme at King's College, Cambridge. Specialising in Sanskrit and Buddhist Chinese, he is interested in the intersection between power, religion and communal health in premodern Asia.

    "Houses of health" and monastic infirmaries: communal health in premodern South and Southeast Asia - Figure 1
    "Houses of health" and monastic infirmaries: communal health in premodern South and Southeast Asia - Figure 2
    "Houses of health" and monastic infirmaries: communal health in premodern South and Southeast Asia - Figure 3
    "Houses of health" and monastic infirmaries: communal health in premodern South and Southeast Asia

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