Visual Dynamics of Contagion

How does one visually depict the spread of disease Tibet an artists at the turn of the seventeenth century must have asked themselves this very question when they prepared a series of medical scroll paintings, one of which will be discussed here. They were painted to illustrate the medical writings of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s regent, Desi Sangyé Gyatso, specifically his commentary on the Four Tantras, an important medical treatise dating back to the twelfth century. Sangyé Gyatso oversaw the preparation of these scroll paintings in Lhasa. They were designed for educational but also political purposes. At the heart of this visual narrative is the depiction of an Indic origin myth concerning poisons, exploring the themes of elixirs in the pursuit of immortality. The painting presented here steers an inquiry into the interconnectedness of medical ideas of poisoning within the broader notions of disease transmission. The images reveal Tibetan medical ideas of potency, interlinking the poisonous with the medicinal in intriguing ways: poisonous substances could also be used as antidotes to poisoning when properly processed, but they could also be “cast” to cause intentional poisoning. Through existing reproductions of these visuals, this paper explores and analyzes the dynamics between forms of poisoning and the antidotes used to treat poisoning. What understanding of poisoning and contagion can we draw from this almost four-hundred-year-old medical painting?