Seventh International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM VII)
September 7th to 11th, 2009
Institute for traditional medicine services, Thimphu, Bhutan
The International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) meets every three years for an International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM). Founded in 1979, IASTAM is the only international organisation in the field of Asian medicine making a serious attempt to embrace both academics and practitioners. It holds regional and international conferences (e.g. in Canberra in 1979, Surabaya in 1984, Bombay in 1990, Tokyo in 1994 and in Austin in 2006), publishes a regular newsletter, and produces the only peer reviewed academic journal in the field, Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity, published with Brill in Leiden.
The 2009 gathering of IASTAM, the Seventh Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM VII) was held in Thimphu, Bhutan, from September 7-11, 2009, hosted by the Institute for Traditional Medicine Services (ITMS), Royal Government of Bhutan.
The theme for the congress, ‘Asian Medicine: Cultivating Traditions and the Challenges of Globalization’, was positively received by both Bhutanese hosts and national and international participants enabling a wide variety of topics and issues being discussed. The congress brought about unique communications between scholars, scientists, policymakers and practitioner. We witnessed a growth in the range of topics and methodological approaches in the conferences’ schedule, from history, philology and religion to literature, Asian medical and biomedical practices and sciences, and from anthropology, art history, material culture, law to globalisation, gender studies and modernity.
With 200 participants in attendance, including practitioners and academics as well as private entrepreneurs and government civil servants from 30 countries, IASTAM as an organisation remains true to its ethos of being both international and interdisciplinary at its heart, as conceived of 30 years ago by Charles Leslie and A. L. Basham, the founders of IASTAM.
Feel free to download the full programme and all abstracts of the conference here: ictam_vii_programme_abstract.pdf.
A collection of audio recordings from a panel on Himalayan medicine presented at the conference is available below.
| # | Presenter | Subject | Date | Download.wma file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Calum Blaikie | “Critically Endangered? Himalayan Medicinal Plant Conservation and Diversity in Medical Cultures” | 7 Sept 09 |  |
| 02 | Carroll Dunham | “From Wild to Cultivated: Can Valued Sowa Rigpa Medicinal Plants Meet Market Demands Sustainably and Benefit Local Communities?” | 7 Sept 09 | |
| 03 | Chamundeeswari Kuppuswamy | “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights: the Impact of Traditional Knowledge and Health” | 7 Sept 09 | |
| 04 | Daniel Winkler | “Yartsa Gunbu (Cordyceps sinesis): An Ancient Medicinal Fungus Transforming Rural Tibet” | 9 Sept 09 | |
| 05 | Dr Dawa | “Perspectives from the Tradition of Tibetan Medicines on the Nature, Identification, and Potencies of Organic Materia Medica, as well as their Protection and Increased Production’ | 7 Sept 09 | n/a |
| 06 | Ed Smith | “Conservation of Wild Medicinal Plants Through Sustainable Wild-Harvesting and Propagation by Organic Agriculture Worldwide” | 8 Sept 09 | |
| 07 | Gyatso Bista | “Conservation, Cultivation, and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants: Preliminary Report from Trials in Mustang, Nepal” | 9 Sept 09 | |
| 08 | Herbert Schwabl | “Tibetan Medicine in the European OTC-Context” | 9 Sept 09 | |
| 09 | Jan Salick | “Tibetan Medicine and Climate Change” | 7 Sept 09 | |
| 10 | Kalden Nyima | “Endangered Tibetan Medicinal Plants and their Protection” | 8 Sept 09 | |
| 11 | Kalden Nyima | “Medicinal Plants Conservation and Traditional Knowledge Transferring in Kawagebo Region” | 9 Sept 09 | |
| 12 | Martin Saxer | “Recent Developments in Cross-border Trade of Tibetan Medicinal Plants” | 8 Sept 09 | |
| 13 | Mona Schrempf | “Globalisation of Traditional Chinese and Tibetan Medicines between China and Europe: And Interdisciplinary Research Agenda” | 7 Sept 09 | |
| 14 | panel discussion | 10 Sept 09 | |
|
| 15 | Pei Shengji | “Medicinal Plants and Conservation in China with Reference in Chinese Himalayan Region” | 9 Sept 09 | |
| 16 | Sonam Dorje | “To Treasure Wild Medicinal Plant Resources and Conserve Tibetan Culture” | 7 Sept 09 | |
| 17 | Tsewang Gonbo | “An Alternative Approach to Medicinal Plant Conservation in Ladakh, India” | 9 Sept 09 | n/a |
| 18 | Ugyen Dorji | “Medicinal Plants and Their Conservation in Bhutan” | 10 Sept 09 | n/a |
| 19 | Zhang Huayin | “Managing Supply China of Herbal Ingredients” | 8 Sept 09 | n/a |