Carmela Simioli

Carmela Simioli is a Tibetologist specializing in the history and literature of Tibetan medicine and alchemy. She holds a PhD in Tibetan Studies from the Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” and has trained in Tibetan and Chinese language and philology. From 2006 to 2008, she studied Tibetan language at Tibet University in Lhasa, earning a Certificate of Advanced Knowledge of Modern Tibetan.

Her research focuses on the transmission of medical and alchemical knowledge in Tibet, particularly the transformation of Greco-Arab traditions within Tibetan medical literature. She was the recipient of a four-year scholarship from the Khyentse Foundation, supporting her work on the translation of Tibetan medical and ritual sources within the project Theriaca and Alchemical Elixirs: A History of Buddhist Tantric and Medical Literatures on Epidemics and Poisons in Premodern Tibet.

Carmela is affiliated with the Department of Asian and Mediterranean Studies at “L’Orientale,” where she teaches Tibetan language and literature. In addition to her academic work, she has served as an interpreter for Tibetan lamas and physicians since 2011 and has worked as a translator and interpreter at the Istituto Samantabhadra in Rome.