SIMIOLI CARMELA

Carmen Simioli is a postdoctoral researcher and an adjunct professor of Tibetan language and literature at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where she is conducting the project “From the Mediterranean to the Himalayas: Transmission of Medical and Alchemical Knowledge in Eurasia”.
The project deals with transference and transformation of Greco Arab anatomical knowledge to Tibet —focusing on the diagnosis of the neurocranium, musculoskeletal structures, and visual system; as well as the development of craniotomy, orthopedics, and ophthalmology—and examines possible points of contact with Indo-Persian alchemical traditions.
She was the recipient of a scholarship funded by the Khyentse Foundation USA (2021–2025). Her project intended to evaluate role of Buddhist tantric medicine in the development of Tibetan nosology and ritualised pharmacology.
She completed her PhD in Indological and Tibetological studies at L’Orientale in 2014. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the history and literature of Tibetan mercurial alchemy and iatrochemistry. From 2006 to 2008 she lived in Lhasa, where she completed the two years course of Tibetan Language (Certificate of Advanced Knowledge of Modern Tibetan) at Tibet University (Xizang Daxue). She has served as interpreter for Tibetan lamas and doctors since 2011. Her research centers on the historical interactions of Buddhism and medical traditions in Tibet. She is member and cofounder of the Italian Association of Tibetan, Himalayan and Mongolian Studies (AISTHiM).