THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Venera KHALIKOVA
The Ayurvedic Health Industry: Beyond Medicine, Beyond Tradition, Beyond Asia
Friday 28 March 2025, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Ayurveda is a South Asian tradition of health and longevity. In academic and popular discourse, it is often described as a traditional, indigenous, and alternative medicine, yet these designations misrepresent the fact that Ayurveda also exists in a form of a large, innovative, and lucrative industry with significant influence both within and beyond Asia. This industry encompasses multiple market sectors and products: from classical or reformulated branded pharmaceuticals to food and beverages, personal care products, spa, restaurants, household cleaning, textiles, dyes, and biofertilizers. These commodities are not strictly medical yet invoke and capitalize on the Ayurvedic medical knowledge.
In this talk, I examine Ayurveda as a brand-oriented, transnational, and profit-driven industry, particularly focusing on its expansion beyond the domain of "medicine." By documenting various forms, infrastructures, technologies, stakeholders, policies, and ideologies of the Ayurvedic industry, I show how it intersects with geopolitics, big business, and Global Health. I also ask, what is at stake when the labels of "Ayurveda" find their way into everything from the chic to the trivial? What are the political, economic, and cultural regimes that facilitate such possibilities? And do these market transgressions betray the indigenous principles, or finally challenge the previously narrowly "medical" approaches to Ayurvedic knowledge?
Venera Khalikova is Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a cultural anthropologist researching alternative medicine in India and the transnational migration of South Asians in Hong Kong. Her work has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, and appeared in Medical Anthropology, Journal of Asian Studies, and Food, Culture, and Society, among others.