It is rarely appreciated how much of the history of Asian medicine in the premodern period hinges on moments of cross-cultural interaction and transnational transmission. This panel explores the rich diversity of these medical encounters and the conditions and contexts of such exchanges. 

While our panelists focus on a number of discrete historical instances of exchange, what unites our papers as a cohesive whole is our attention to the unique challenges and opportunities that cross-cultural medical exchange pose to us as historians. We will explore important methodological considerations relating to the processes of transmission and translation, such as: What are the historical conditions under which medical exchange occurs? What power differentials encourage or hinder these processes? How is foreign knowledge assessed, absorbed, or rejected by recipients? What forms of cultural translation accompany medical transmissions? What types of knowledge cross cultures easily and what types are more resistant to translation? What categories of historical analysis are undermined or illuminated by the study of cross-cultural medical exchange? 

We believe that the methodological and interpretive questions raised by the analysis of cross-cultural exchange will significantly impact the study of the history of Asian medicine. They challenge the discipline’s usual focus on familiar models from the classical Chinese and Āyurvedic traditions, and bring to light the pervasive role of foreign medical knowledge in the shaping of ideas and practices. The goal of our panel is to begin a long-term conversation about these important issues between historians working on the history of transmitted medical knowledge across a wide range of geographical and temporal settings.