Tenzin Namdul, TMD, PhD

Areas of Interest

Aging, integrative health, death and dying, end-of-life care, contemplative practice, cognitive resilience, Tibetan Buddhism, and Tibetan Medicine

Summary

Dr. Tenzin Namdul is a medical anthropologist and a Tibetan Medicine doctor, driven to understand mind-body relationship in studying aging and memory through the lens of biocultural and Tibetan medical paradigms. He incorporates his wide array of training into translational science to examine how cultural values and practices shape the ways in which individuals age and die and care for others who are dying. For his doctoral research, Dr. Namdul examines how Tibetan medical doctors, Buddhist practitioners, and lay people’s perspectives about death and dying translate into their care for dying individuals and their own dying process. Specifically, he explores the Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practice called tukdam—a meditation an adept practitioner indulges in after a clinical death—through ethnographic study and shows how it informs and shapes both the sociomoral fabric of life and the sense of wellbeing at the time of dying among Tibetan refugees in southern India.

Dr. Namdul’s current research investigates factors associated with cognitive and physical resilience and how they influence aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias among Tibetan Buddhist monks in southern India.

Awards & Recognition

• UMN College of Liberal Arts Emerging Alumni Award – 2023 
• TRACT TL1 Scholar, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Minnesota (2020-2022)
• Mind & Life Summer Research Institute Fellow (2018)
• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (2017)
• Wenner-Gren Ph.D. Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (2016)
• Dalai Lama Trust Graduate Scholar (2013-15)
• Emory Graduate Diversity Fellow, Laney Graduate School, Emory University (2013-18)

Research Summary/Interests

Death and Dying, Aging, End-of-life Care, Mental Health, Tibetan Medicine, Buddhist Studies, Ritual, Integrative Health, Consciousness.

Selected Publications:
 

• Tidwell, T. L., Eisenberg, L. E., Fedotov, A., Namdul, T.,… Medvedev, S. (2024). Delayed decompositional changes in indoor settings among Tibetan monastic communities in India: A case report. Forensic Science International. Reports, 9, 100370-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsir.2024.100370
• Tidwell, T. L., Namdul, T., Lee, K. E.,… Rosenkranz, M. (2024). Effect of Tibetan herbal formulas on symptom duration among ambulatory patients with native SARS-CoV-2 infection: A retrospective cohort study. Brain Behavior & Immunity. Integrative, 5, 100051-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbii.2024.100051
• Namdul, T. (Manuscript under review). Death and Happiness: Exploring the Temporalities of the Meditated Death and Everyday Life in Tibetan Buddhist Practice of Tukdam. Cultural, Mind & Psychiatry Special Issue.
• Namdul, T. (Manuscript under review). Doctor-Patient Relationship in End-of-Life: Exploring Personalized Care in Tibetan Medical Practice among Tibetan Refugees in southern India. Cross-Cultural Gerontology. 
• Cameron, M.E. and Namdul, T. (2022). Systems of Care: Tibetan Medicine. In R. Lindquist, M.F. Tracy, & M. Snyder. Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Nursing, 9th Edition, 70-88. NY: Springer Publishing Company.
• Romano, M.R., Díaz-Almeyda, E., Namdul, T., Lhundup, Y. (2021). Dialogue-based learning: A framework for inclusive science education and applied ethics. Frontiers. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.731839
• Namdul, T. (2021). Re-Examining Death: Doors to Resilience and Wellbeing in Tibetan Buddhist Practice. Religions 12, no.7:522. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070522  
• Namdul, T., MacLehose, R., Buchwald, D. (2021). 95818 Physical and Cognitive Resilience and Alzheimer’s Disease in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastic Community. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 5(S1), 128-129. doi:10.1017/cts.2021.729
• Cameron, M.E., and Namdul, T. (2020). Tibetan Medicine and You: A Path to Wellbeing, Better Health, and Joy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Group Inc.
• Cameron, M. E., Torkelson, C., Haddow, S., Namdul, T., Prasek, A., & Gross, C. R. (2012). Tibetan Medicine and Integrative Health: Validity Testing and Refinement of the Constitutional Self-Assessment Tool and Lifestyle Guidelines Tool. Explore (New York, N.Y.), 8(3), 158–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2012.02.002 

Teachings:

CSPH 5315 “Traditional Tibetan Medicine: Ethics, Spirituality, and Healing”
CSPH 5318 “Tibetan Medicine in India”
CSPH 5000-01 “Death, Happiness, and Resilience: Rethinking Care and Well-being at the Time of Dying”