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<PublisherName>journalofhealthstudies</PublisherName>
<JournalTitle>Indian Journal of Health Studies</JournalTitle>
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<EISSN>S</EISSN>
<Volume-Issue>Volume 8 Issues 2</Volume-Issue>
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<IssueTopic>Multidisciplinary</IssueTopic>
<IssueLanguage>English</IssueLanguage>
<Season>July 2026</Season>
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<IssueOA>Y</IssueOA>
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<Year>2026</Year>
<Month>07</Month>
<Day>31</Day>
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<ArticleType>Health Studies</ArticleType>
<ArticleTitle>Role of Tibetan Healing Practices in Psychological Well-Being among Tibetan Communities in India: A Scoping Review</ArticleTitle>
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<ArticleLanguage>English</ArticleLanguage>
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<FirstPage>112</FirstPage>
<LastPage>132</LastPage>
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<LastName>Khanam2</LastName>
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<Abstract>Tibetan refugees in India have experienced prolonged displacement, political persecution, and intergenerational trauma. Their understanding of psychological distress is shaped by Buddhist philosophy, indigenous medical systems such as Sowa Rigpa, and collective religious life. Conventional Western psychiatric frameworks often fail to fully capture these culturally embedded experiences of suffering. This scoping review examines how Tibetan healing traditions conceptualise mental distress, trauma, and resilience among Tibetan communities in India. It also explores how these frameworks intersect with contemporary psychological approaches to care. This review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. A search was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed English-language articles published between 2000 and 2025. Studies were included if they focused on Tibetan refugees or Tibetan communities in India and addressed Tibetan medicine, Buddhist psychology, ritual healing practices, or other indigenous explanatory models in relation to mental health outcomes. After screening and duplicate removal, eligible studies were synthesised thematically. The literature highlights culturally specific idioms of distress, particularly rlung and srog-rlung disturbances, strong links between trauma and religious disruption, and the central role of Buddhist mind-training practices, ritual healing, and monastic institutions in fostering resilience. Several studies also identify conceptual parallels between Tibetan healing systems and contemporary trauma-informed psychological approaches. Indigenous Tibetan healing traditions provide culturally meaningful frameworks for understanding and responding to trauma among Tibetan communities in exile. Integrative mental health approaches that respect these traditions alongside evidence-based psychological care may offer more culturally responsive models for refugee mental health services.</Abstract>
<AbstractLanguage>English</AbstractLanguage>
<Keywords>Tibetan medicine, Sowa Rigpa, Tibetan refugees, Mental health, Resilience</Keywords>
<URLs>
<Abstract>https://www.journalofhealthstudies.in/ubijournal-v1copy/journals/abstract.php?article_id=16323&title=Role of Tibetan Healing Practices in Psychological Well-Being among Tibetan Communities in India: A Scoping Review</Abstract>
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<References>
<ReferencesarticleTitle>References</ReferencesarticleTitle>
<ReferencesfirstPage>16</ReferencesfirstPage>
<ReferenceslastPage>19</ReferenceslastPage>
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</References>
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