“Towards the advancement of medical knowledge”: Tibetan Eye Surgery and Eighteenth-Century Colonial Knowledge Production

Abstract: In 1774, East India Company Governor-General Warren Hastings commissioned an expedition to Tibet. Much has been written about the mission, but little is known about Alexander Hamilton, who joined as assistant-surgeon. Hamilton described Tibetan eye surgery as both “further behind Europeans” and “more successful than the one we follow.” Using comparative methods and deep contextualization, this article reads the contradictions in Hamilton’s writings alongside eighteenth-century Tibetan ophthalmology to reveal an Enlightenment-era tension between seeking new knowledge and substantiating Britain’s progress narrative. Hamilton and the following two British medical men in Tibet—Robert Saunders and Thomas Manning—were aware that claims of British medical superiority were unfounded. Yet, their willful ignorance of Tibetan medicine resulted in the non-transfer of knowledge, facilitating the rise of imperial confidence.