Draft:C. Pierce Salguero

Salguero earned a B.A. in Anthropology and Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia in 1996, an M.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Virginia in 2005, and a Ph.D. in the History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2010.^[1]

Before entering academia, Salguero worked as a practitioner and teacher of Traditional Thai Medicine and authored trade books on Thai massage and traditional healing, including Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Ayurveda (Hohm Press, 2007; revised as Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Yoga, Ayurveda, White Lotus Press, 2016).^[10] At Penn State Abington, he teaches courses in Asian history, Asian religions, the history of medicine, mindfulness, and health humanities.^[1]

Since 2016, he has served as editor-in-chief of Asian Medicine: Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine.^[1][2]

Salguero's research examines the historical and contemporary relationship between Buddhism and medicine. His work spans textual history, translation history, and ethnographic fieldwork. Across these methods, he has argued that Buddhist traditions across Asia developed and transmitted substantial bodies of medical knowledge that have often been overlooked in mainstream histories of medicine, and that these materials can be studied as a coherent, though internally diverse, field of "Buddhist medicine".^[4][11]

His early work on medieval China argued that Chinese Buddhist translators and authors did not merely transmit Indian medical ideas into Literary Chinese, but actively interpreted and adapted them for local audiences.^[3] He later edited anthologies of translated Buddhist medical sources from multiple Asian languages, intended to make a scattered textual record more accessible to researchers and teachers.^[5][6]

Academic reviews have credited Salguero's work with helping to establish Buddhist medicine as a distinct field of study. In a review of Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China, Frederick Shih-Chung Chen wrote that the book helped locate Buddhist medicine in medieval China "as a subject in its own right" rather than as a subtopic within the history of Chinese medicine.^[12] Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, reviewing A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine in Southeast Asian Studies, wrote that Salguero had "spearheaded many endeavors related to Buddhist medicine for almost two decades".^[13] William A. McGrath wrote in Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies that Salguero had integrated historical, anthropological, and clinical studies into a unified field of "Buddhist medicine".^[11]

Salguero has also conducted ethnographic research on contemporary American Buddhist communities, including Buddhist healthcare and healing practices in Philadelphia.^[14] This work has included producing a series of six short documentary films with filmmaker-scholar Lan A. Li.^[15]

His recent work has examined Buddhist textual discussions of "meditation sickness", including physical and mental difficulties associated with meditation practice.^[16][17]

Salguero's academic books include Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2014; Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Yoga, Ayurveda, published in revised edition by White Lotus Press in 2016; and A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine, published by Columbia University Press in 2022.^[3][1][4]

He has also edited or co-edited several collections, including Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources, Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources, Buddhist Healing in Medieval China and Japan, Buddhism and Healing in the Modern World, and Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook on the Dangers of Buddhist Practice.^{[5][6][18][19][16]}

His articles have appeared in journals including History of Religions, Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies, East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, Religions, Pacific World, and Journal of Buddhist Ethics.^[1]

Alongside his academic publications, Salguero has written books for general readers on Buddhism, Asian spiritual practices, and contemporary spirituality. These include Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical, published by Beacon Press in 2022, and A Lamp unto Yourself: A Beginner's Guide to Asian Spiritual Practices, from Advaita and Buddhism to Yoga and Zen, published by Beacon Press in 2025.^[7][8]

His book Multidharma: A New Map of Awakening for Contemporary Spiritual Explorers is scheduled for publication by Aeon Books in November 2026. The book presents a model of awakening organized around four "threads" or categories of spiritual experience: Emptiness, Oneness, Energy, and Psyche.^[9]