For many years scholars have speculated about the circulation of ‘subtle body’ ideas and practices around South and East Asia. Yet while there have been excellent monographs on localised practices, little progress has been made in what is surely a history of multiple exchanges in the ancient and medieval worlds. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing elaboration of the early and early medieval character of Chinese bodily based practices aimed at refining the subtle and healing the physical body. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of good, matching, contemporary historical materials for India and Tibet with some of the earliest surviving Tibetan and Sanskrit manusripts among the Dunhuang manuscripts of North West China. Academic and political cultures in the different area studies have also hampered communication across linguistic and disciplinary domains in the past, and have been important limiting factors. All this is now changing with more value being placed on transcultural studies and investment in interdisciplinary approaches which demand collaborative studies.

This presentation will draw out the challenges and possibilities that lie in tracking a range of body terms, physiological concepts and practices concerned with the subtle body and chart what can be known about their emergence socially and historically in India, China and Tibet. Implicated in this enquiry will be the structures of the body including the channels and vessels of the body and self cultivation, the essences that flow within and around them, strategic body loci and death points in forensic medicine and martial arts. An important factor will also be the temporal constructions that govern physiological time.

The point is not to come to any conclusions, but to contribute to shaping future initiatives. The time is right to outline the historical problems and design new approaches to the question raised therein.