The International Trust for Traditional Medicine is looking for a temporary replacement to assist visiting volunteers and coordinate the centre's activities during the absence of the centre's main coordinator, Barbara Gerke, from December, 2007 to May, 2008 (while she completes her D.Phil. thesis at Oxford University).

ITTM, founded in 1995, is a non-profit, registered public charitable Trust dedicated to the study and research of Indo-Tibetan and allied medical systems (www.ittm.org). The ITTM centre, Vijnana Niwas (House of Knowledge) is located in Madhuban (Honey Forest) Village, three kilometres outside the town of Kalimpong, in India's eastern Himalayas in a large wooden British colonial house surrounded by extensive gardens of Himalayan medicinal plants. ITTM offers an excellent base for ethnographic fieldwork and a meeting place for anthropologists, ethnobotanists, and other researchers. ITTM's extensive network of contacts with local practitioners and experts in traditional medicine, its library, and its quiet ambience, offers an excellent place to conduct fieldwork, write up notes, or work on one's thesis, books, or papers. With its guest rooms and common kitchens, ITTM is also a place where researchers share both meals and their experiences and knowledge in a relaxed atmosphere.

The position of temporary coordinator involves only a few hours of work per day and leaves plenty of time to write and work on your own research.

The Responsibilities Include:

• Welcoming international invited scholars (between 1 to 5 guests a month) to the centre and looking after their well-being as well as helping them make contacts for their research
• Overseeing and guiding activities at the centre (depending on visiting researchers and their interests)
• Supervision of the centre's four local staff members (1 gardener, 1 housekeeper, 2 data input operators-all well-trained and independent workers)
• Paying the staff members' monthly salaries
• Keeping accounts of daily expenditures
• Overseeing the Data Input Project of Tibetan Medical Texts, which entails basic computer work, preparing files, and making regular backups, as well as coordinating proof-reading, etc.)
• If you have anthropological training and sufficient interest, to conduct a 2-week practical fieldwork seminar for undergraduate students in the summer
• If you are interested, to conduct bi-monthly yoga/creativity classes for the local village children (about 15 kids aged 3-14)

ITTM Will Provide:

• Accommodation and excellent food at very reasonable and discounted rates
• Library and computer facilities for your own research
• A mobile phone
• Intensive one-month training during April, 2008 by the current coordinator
• Support from ITTM Trustees residing in the region
• Regular support and guidance from Barbara Gerke by e-mail and phone during your assignment

Prerequisites:

• Openness, ability to work with others, and a sincere interest in taking on the responsibilities of the centre
• Involvement in personal research (preferably on traditional medicine, ethnobotany, anthropology, or allied disciplines)
• Preferably previous living or travelling experience in India or other Asian countries

You are free to go for occasional journeys around the region (Darjeeling/Sikkim) for a break, or along with guests (plant collection treks, fieldwork, etc.)

Please send your expression of interest and CV/resume, a photo and e-mail addresses of two referees, and feel free to ask further questions. We will put you in touch with the previous co-ordinator, who volunteered in this position in 2005/2006/2007.

For more detailed information, please contact Barbara Gerke.

Key words: Anthropology, job opportunities, Himalayan Anthropology, Medical Anthropology jobs