Abstract

In the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, medical patients engage a variety of healing practices to seek cures for their ailments. Patients use the expanding biomedical network and a growing number of traditional healthcare units, while also seeking alternative practices, such as shamanism and other religious healing, or even more provocative practices. The Patient Multiple delves into this healthcare complexity in the context of patients’ daily lives and decision-making processes, showing how these unique mountain cultures are finding new paths to good health among a changing and multifaceted medical topography.

“This book is a welcome pioneering ethnography based on case studies that demonstrate a clear understanding of the way in which public health care services in Bhutan integrate both biomedical and ’traditional’ medicine.” · Mona Schrempf, Free University, Berlin

“This is a timely and much needed study on the relationship between traditional and modern medicine in Bhutan that is grounded in a rich, nuanced ethnographic study.” · Richard Whitecross, Edinburgh Napier University

Jonathan Taee holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. He has conducted ethnographic research and worked in Tibet, Peru, Nepal, India, the USA and Bhutan.