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Sienna Craig

Dartmouth College, Anthropology, Faculty Member

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The worlds of healing across cultures, the meanings people ascribe to illness, and the social lives of medicines fascinate me. I am also deeply curious about how communities navigate processes of migration and social change. My research takes me to the Nepal Himalaya, Tibetan regions of China, and among Nepali and Tibetan communities in the United States.

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University of Vienna

Austrian Academy of Sciences

University of the West of England

Austrian Academy of Sciences

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dartmouth College

Naropa University

Laurent Pordié

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

University of Toronto

James Madison University

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Papers by Sienna Craig

Sowa Rigpa Humanitarianism: Local Logics of Care within a Global Politics of Compassion

by Sienna Craig, Barbara Gerke, and Victoria Sheldon

Craig, Sienna R., Barbara Gerke, and Victoria Sheldon. 2019. "Sowa Rigpa Humanitarianism: Local Logics of Care within a Global Politics of Compassion." Medical Anthropology Quarterly. doi:10.1111/maq.12561.

This article examines the circulation of humanitarian ideas, materials, and actions in a non‐biom... more This article examines the circulation of humanitarian ideas, materials, and actions in a non‐biomedical and non‐Judeo–Christian context: Sowa Rigpa or Tibetan medical camps in India and Nepal. Through these camps, practitioners and patients alike often overtly articulate Sowa Rigpa medicine as part of a broader humanitarian “good” motivated by a Buddhist‐inflected ethics of compassion and a moral economy of care, diverging from mainstream public health and conventional humanitarian projects. Three ethnographic case studies demonstrate how micro‐political interactions at camps engage with ethical and religious imaginaries. We show how the ordinary ethics of Sowa Rigpa humanitarianism gain distinct political meaning in contrast to non‐Tibetan forms of aid, reconfiguring the relationship between Buddhism, essential medicines, moral economies, and politics. While Sowa Rigpa as a medical system operates transnationally, these camps are organized around local logics of emergent care, employing narratives of “charity” and Buddhist compassion when addressing health needs.

A Crisis Of Confidence: A Comparison Between Shifts In Tibetan Medical Education In Nepal And Tibet

Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, 2007

Book review of 'The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama' by Thomas Laird

Himalaya the Journal of the Association For Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 2010

Not Found in Tibetan Society": Culture, Childbirth, and a Politics of Life on the Roof of the World

Himalaya the Journal of the Association For Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 2011

Speaking Nepali on an Auckland Bus

Anthropology and Humanism, 2015

Studies of medical pluralism in Tibetan history and society

"PART ONE Tibetan Medicine in Modern Contexts: Challenges and Innovation PART TWO Medical Pl... more

Anthropology and Humanism, 2010

Manufacturing Tibetan Medicine: The Creation of an Industry and the Moral Economy of Tibetanness , written by Martin Saxer

Asian Medicine, 2014

Sienna Craig, Mingji Cuomu, Frances Garrett, Mona Schrempf (eds). 2010. Studies of Medical Pluralism in Tibetan History and Society. (Proceedings of the 11th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bonn 2006)

Coproducing Efficacious Medicines

by Calum Blaikie and Sienna Craig

Current Anthropology, 2015

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Thinley Gyatso and Chris Hakim, Essentials of Tibetan Traditional Medicine. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2010, pp. 395

How to make consent informed: Possible lessons from Tibet

by Sienna Craig and Suellen Miller

IRB: Ethics & Human …, 2007

The informed consent process is an essential com-ponent of ethical clinical research.' Despi... more

Current administration practices and preferred formulations of children's medicines in Tanzania: Summary of survey findings

by Helga Naburi, Sienna Craig, and Lisa Adams

International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2012

Rangelands and Pastoral Development in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas

Journal of Range Management, 1998

Conservation, Cultivation, and Commodification of Medicinal Plants in the Greater Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau

by Sienna Craig and Denise M Glover

Asian Medicine, 2009

Children’s Medicines in Tanzania: A National Survey of Administration Practices and Preferences

by Sienna Craig, Helga Naburi, and Lisa Adams

PLoS ONE, 2013

Objective: The dearth of age-appropriate formulations of many medicines for children poses a majo... more Objective: The dearth of age-appropriate formulations of many medicines for children poses a major challenge to pediatric therapeutic practice, adherence, and health care delivery worldwide. We provide information on current administration practices of pediatric medicines and describe key stakeholder preferences for new formulation characteristics.

Development transitions: land, labor, and social policy in Tibet

Journal of Peasant Studies, 2014

Audrey Prost: Precious Pills: Medicine and Social Change among Tibetan Refugees in India

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 2009

Men's attitudes, beliefs and roles in pregnancy and childbirth: an Ethnographic Study in Nepal

by Sienna Craig and S. Kristensen

Contraception, 2013

Migration, Social Change, Health, and the Realm of the Possible: Women's Stories between Nepal and New York

Anthropology and Humanism, 2011

This article uses narrative ethnography centered on two individuals from Mustang, Nepal-their emb... more This article uses narrative ethnography centered on two individuals from Mustang, Nepal-their embodied experiences and subjectivities, including their understandings of birth and disability-to explore the ways that migration can alter senses of self and home, body and family, and what I call the realm of the possible. Although these stories emerge primarily through the voices of women, their narratives point toward a broader analysis about the relationship between place and well being, medicine and social change. [Nepal, Tibet, migration, medical pluralism, women's health, disability, subjectivity] From the mind of a single, long vine, one hundred opening lives.

Sowa Rigpa Humanitarianism: Local Logics of Care within a Global Politics of Compassion

by Sienna Craig, Barbara Gerke, and Victoria Sheldon

Craig, Sienna R., Barbara Gerke, and Victoria Sheldon. 2019. "Sowa Rigpa Humanitarianism: Local Logics of Care within a Global Politics of Compassion." Medical Anthropology Quarterly. doi:10.1111/maq.12561.

This article examines the circulation of humanitarian ideas, materials, and actions in a non‐biom... more This article examines the circulation of humanitarian ideas, materials, and actions in a non‐biomedical and non‐Judeo–Christian context: Sowa Rigpa or Tibetan medical camps in India and Nepal. Through these camps, practitioners and patients alike often overtly articulate Sowa Rigpa medicine as part of a broader humanitarian “good” motivated by a Buddhist‐inflected ethics of compassion and a moral economy of care, diverging from mainstream public health and conventional humanitarian projects. Three ethnographic case studies demonstrate how micro‐political interactions at camps engage with ethical and religious imaginaries. We show how the ordinary ethics of Sowa Rigpa humanitarianism gain distinct political meaning in contrast to non‐Tibetan forms of aid, reconfiguring the relationship between Buddhism, essential medicines, moral economies, and politics. While Sowa Rigpa as a medical system operates transnationally, these camps are organized around local logics of emergent care, employing narratives of “charity” and Buddhist compassion when addressing health needs.

A Crisis Of Confidence: A Comparison Between Shifts In Tibetan Medical Education In Nepal And Tibet

Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, 2007

Book review of 'The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama' by Thomas Laird

Himalaya the Journal of the Association For Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 2010

Not Found in Tibetan Society": Culture, Childbirth, and a Politics of Life on the Roof of the World

Himalaya the Journal of the Association For Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 2011

Speaking Nepali on an Auckland Bus

Anthropology and Humanism, 2015

Studies of medical pluralism in Tibetan history and society

"PART ONE Tibetan Medicine in Modern Contexts: Challenges and Innovation PART TWO Medical Pl... more

Anthropology and Humanism, 2010

Manufacturing Tibetan Medicine: The Creation of an Industry and the Moral Economy of Tibetanness , written by Martin Saxer

Asian Medicine, 2014

Sienna Craig, Mingji Cuomu, Frances Garrett, Mona Schrempf (eds). 2010. Studies of Medical Pluralism in Tibetan History and Society. (Proceedings of the 11th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bonn 2006)

Coproducing Efficacious Medicines

by Calum Blaikie and Sienna Craig

Current Anthropology, 2015

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Thinley Gyatso and Chris Hakim, Essentials of Tibetan Traditional Medicine. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2010, pp. 395

How to make consent informed: Possible lessons from Tibet

by Sienna Craig and Suellen Miller

IRB: Ethics & Human …, 2007

The informed consent process is an essential com-ponent of ethical clinical research.' Despi... more

Current administration practices and preferred formulations of children's medicines in Tanzania: Summary of survey findings

by Helga Naburi, Sienna Craig, and Lisa Adams

International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2012

Rangelands and Pastoral Development in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas

Journal of Range Management, 1998

Conservation, Cultivation, and Commodification of Medicinal Plants in the Greater Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau

by Sienna Craig and Denise M Glover

Asian Medicine, 2009

Children’s Medicines in Tanzania: A National Survey of Administration Practices and Preferences

by Sienna Craig, Helga Naburi, and Lisa Adams

PLoS ONE, 2013

Objective: The dearth of age-appropriate formulations of many medicines for children poses a majo... more Objective: The dearth of age-appropriate formulations of many medicines for children poses a major challenge to pediatric therapeutic practice, adherence, and health care delivery worldwide. We provide information on current administration practices of pediatric medicines and describe key stakeholder preferences for new formulation characteristics.

Development transitions: land, labor, and social policy in Tibet

Journal of Peasant Studies, 2014

Audrey Prost: Precious Pills: Medicine and Social Change among Tibetan Refugees in India

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 2009

Men's attitudes, beliefs and roles in pregnancy and childbirth: an Ethnographic Study in Nepal

by Sienna Craig and S. Kristensen

Contraception, 2013

Migration, Social Change, Health, and the Realm of the Possible: Women's Stories between Nepal and New York

Anthropology and Humanism, 2011

This article uses narrative ethnography centered on two individuals from Mustang, Nepal-their emb... more This article uses narrative ethnography centered on two individuals from Mustang, Nepal-their embodied experiences and subjectivities, including their understandings of birth and disability-to explore the ways that migration can alter senses of self and home, body and family, and what I call the realm of the possible. Although these stories emerge primarily through the voices of women, their narratives point toward a broader analysis about the relationship between place and well being, medicine and social change. [Nepal, Tibet, migration, medical pluralism, women's health, disability, subjectivity] From the mind of a single, long vine, one hundred opening lives.

Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage through the Himalayas

Medicine Between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds

Studies of Medical Pluralism in Tibetan History and Society: Proceedings from the XIth International Association of Tibetan Studies Meetings

Clinical Research on Tibetan Medicine: Challenges and Points of Consensus

Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine

Special issue on Medicinal Plant Cultivation, Conservation and Commoditization in the Himalaya and Tibet

Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 5(2), 2011

Special issue on Development in Tibet: Land, Labor, and Social Policy in a Context of Rapid Transition.

Himalaya 30(1-2), 2011

Sacred Geography: Sonnets of Tibetan and Himalayan Landscape

Simplemente Maria Press, 2005

Clear Sky, Red Earth: A Himalayan Story

Mera Publications, 2009

I was very fortunate to collaborate with the wonderful Dolpo artist and social entrepreneur, Tenz... more I was very fortunate to collaborate with the wonderful Dolpo artist and social entrepreneur, Tenzin Norbu, on this story about the making of art, the meaning of home, and the challenges we face in our everyday lives. The story was written during 2001, when Norbu got to spend some time with us in the US. The book is now in its second edition and is currently being translated and published in Tibetan language, thanks to the Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative. To purchase Clear Sky, Red Earth, please visit Amazon, or contact me. To read a review of Clear Sky, click here.
The book is now in its second edition and has also been produced in Tibetan Language, thanks to the Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative.

A Sacred Geography: Sonnets of Tibet and the Himalaya

Anthropology and Humanism, 35(2), 2010

A Sacred Geography: Sonnets of the Himalaya and Tibet is borne out of years I’ve lived in the Nep... more A Sacred Geography: Sonnets of the Himalaya and Tibet is borne out of years I’ve lived in the Nepal Himalaya and in Tibet. These sonnets are written in homage to places on the edge of things. Each locale invoked through these poems has made me more attentive to the stories that live within a landscape. These places are touchstones. I have chosen the sonnet-as-form, in part, because these poems are an act of love. They are offerings, written in the spirit of ritual and with the knowledge that, like love, landscapes must be true to change. I was fortunate to work with my mother, Mary Heebner on this artist’s book project. To learn more about the process of making A Sacred Geography click here: In June 2006, the exhibit “Mani Wall and A Sacred Geography” opened at the UCLA Fowler Museum. This installation featured a series of paintings by Mary Heebner, the artist’s book, and photography of the region by Macduff Everton, my stepfather.

Tse Go La: At the Threshold of this Life

This work combines a series of my poems with traditional court songs from Mustang, Nepal, compose... more This work combines a series of my poems with traditional court songs from Mustang, Nepal, composed for combined choruses and chamber orchestra by Andrea Clearfield. Co-commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club and the Pennsylvania Girl Choir for premiere with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on April, 29 2012.