Traditional Tibetan medicine (), also known as Sowa-Rigpa medicine, is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials (e.g., herbs and minerals) and physical therapies (e.g. Tibetan acupuncture,

moxabustion Moxibustion () is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort ('' wikt:moxa'') on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, ...

, etc.) to treat illness. The Tibetan medical system is based upon Indian Buddhist literature (for example Abhidharma and Vajrayana tantras) and Ayurveda. It continues to be practiced in Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Siberia,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and Mongolia, as well as more recently in parts of Europe and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It embraces the traditional Buddhist belief that all illness ultimately results from the three poisons: delusion, greed and aversion. Tibetan medicine follows the Buddha's

Four Noble Truths In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: ; pi, cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones".[aFour Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...

which apply medical diagnostic logic to suffering.

History

As Indian culture flooded Tibet in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a number of Indian medical texts were also transmitted. For example, the Ayurvedic ''Astāngahrdayasamhitā'' (Heart of Medicine Compendium attributed to Vagbhata) was translated into Tibetan by རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ། (Rinchen Zangpo) (957–1055). Tibet also absorbed the early Indian Abhidharma literature, for example the fifth-century ''Abhidharmakosasabhasyam'' by Vasubandhu, which expounds upon medical topics, such as fetal development. A wide range of Indian Vajrayana tantras, containing practices based on medical anatomy, were subsequently absorbed into Tibet. Some scholars believe that rgyud bzhi (the '' Four Tantras'') was told by the Buddha, while some believe it is the primary work of གཡུ་ཐོག་ཡོན་ཏན་མགོན་པོ། ( Yuthok Yontan Gonpo, 708 AD). The former opinion is often refuted by saying "If it was told by the Lord Buddha, rgyud bzhi should have a Sanskrit version". However, there is no such version and also no Indian practitioners who have received unbroken lineage of rgyud bzhi. Thus, the later thought should be scholarly considered authentic and practical. The provenance is uncertain. It was the aboriginal Tibetan people's accumulative knowledge of their local plants and their various usages for benefiting people's health that were collected by སྟོན་པོ་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་ཆེ། the Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche and passed down to one of his sons. Later Yuthok Yontan Gonpo perfected it and there was no author for the books, because at the time it was politically incorrect to mention anything related to Bon nor faith in it. གཡུ་ཐོག་ཡོན་ཏན་མགོན་པོ། ( Yuthok Yontan Gonpo) adapted and synthesized the Four Tantras in the 12th Century. The Four Tantras are scholarly debated as having Indian origins or, as Remedy Master Buddha Bhaisajyaguru's word or, as authentically Tibetan. It was not formally taught in schools at first but, intertwined with Tibetan Buddhism. Around the turn of the 14th century, the Drangti family of physicians established a curriculum for the Four Tantras (and the supplementary literature from the Yutok school) at ས་སྐྱ་དགོན། ( Sakya Monastery). The ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་ལྔ་བ། (

5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was the 5th Dalai Lama and the first Dalai Lama to wield effective temporal and spiritual power over all Tibet. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being a key religious and temporal leader ...

) supported སྡེ་སྲིད་སངས་རྒྱས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། ( Desi Sangye Gyatso) to found the pioneering Chagpori College of Medicine in 1696. Chagpori taught Gyamtso's Blue Beryl as well as the Four Tantras in a model that spread throughout Tibet along with the oral tradition.

Four Tantras

The Four Tantras (Gyuzhi, རྒྱུད་བཞི།) is a native Tibetan text incorporating Indian, Chinese and Greco-Arab medical systems. The Four Tantras is believed to have been created in the twelfth century and still today is considered the basis of Tibetan medical practise. The Four Tantras is the common name for the text of the Secret Tantra Instruction on the Eight Branches, the Immortality Elixir essence. It considers a single medical doctrine from four perspectives. Sage Vidyajnana expounded their manifestation. The basis of the Four Tantras is to keep the three bodily humors in balance; (wind

rlung Lung ( ''rlung'') means wind or breath. It is a key concept in the Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and has a variety of meanings. ''Lung'' is a concept that is particularly important to understandings of the subtle body and the trikaya ( ...

, bile mkhris pa, phlegm

bad kan Bad or BAD may refer to: Common meanings *Evil, the opposite of moral good * Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect *Unhealthy, or counter to well-being * Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good Acronyms * BAD-2, a Soviet armored trolle ...

.) * Root Tantra – A general outline of the principles of Tibetan medicine, it discusses the humors in the body and their imbalances and their link to illness. The Four Tantra uses visual observation to diagnose predominantly the analysis of the pulse, tongue and analysis of the urine (in modern terms known as urinalysis ) * Exegetical Tantra – This section discusses in greater detail the theory behind the Four Tantras and gives general theory on subjects such as anatomy, physiology,

psychopathology Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biological psychopatholo ...

, embryology and treatment. * Instructional Tantra – The longest of the Tantras is mainly a practical application of treatment, it explains in detail illnesses and which humoral imbalance which causes the illness. This section also describes their specific treatments. * Subsequent Tantra – Diagnosis and therapies, including the preparation of Tibetan medicine and cleansing of the body internally and externally with the use of techniques such as moxibustion, massage and minor surgeries. Some believe the Four Tantra to be the authentic teachings of the Buddha 'Master of remedies' which was translated from Sanskrit, others believe it to be solely Tibetan in creation by Yuthog the Elder or Yuthog the Younger. Noting these two theories there remain others sceptical as to its original author. Believers in the Buddhist origin of the Four Tantras and how it came to be in Tibet believe it was first taught in India by the Buddha when he manifested as the 'Master of Remedies'. The Four Tantra was then in the eighth century translated and offered to Padmasambhava by Vairocana and concealed in Samye monastery. In the second half of the eleventh century it was rediscovered and in the following century it was in the hands of Yuthog the Younger who completed the Four Tantras and included elements of Tibetan medicine, which would explain why there is Indian elements to the Four Tantras. Although there is clear written instruction in the Four Tantra, the oral transmission of medical knowledge still remained a strong element in Tibetan Medicine, for example oral instruction may have been needed to know how to perform a moxibustion technique.

Three principles of function

Like other systems of traditional Asian medicine, and in contrast to biomedicine, Tibetan medicine first puts forth a specific definition of health in its theoretical texts. To have good health, Tibetan medical theory states that it is necessary to maintain balance in the body's three principles of function humors''">ften translated as '' humors'' ''rLung'' (pron. Loong), ''mKhris-pa'' (pron. Tree-pa) ften translated as ''bile''">bile.html" ;"title="ften translated as ''bile">ften translated as ''bile'' and ''Bad-kan'' (pron. Pay-gen) [often translated as ''phlegm''].''The Basic Tantra and the Explanatory Tantra from the Secret Quintessential Instructions on the Eight Branches of the Ambrosia Essence Tantra''

Men-Tsee-Khang Men-Tsee-Khang (Tibetan:བོད་ཀྱི་སྨན་རྩིས་ཁང་། Wylie: ''bod kyi sman rtsis khang''), also known as Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute, is a charitable institution based in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, ...

: India 2008 • ''rLung'' is the source of the body's ability to circulate physical substances (e.g. blood), energy (e.g. nervous system impulses), and the non-physical (e.g. thoughts). In embryological development, the mind's expression of materialism is manifested as the system of ''rLung''. There are five distinct subcategories of ''rLung'' each with specific locations and functions: ''Srog-'Dzin rLüng'', ''Gyen-rGyu rLung'', ''Khyab-Byed rLüng'', ''Me-mNyam rLung'', ''Thur-Sel rLüng''. • ''mKhris-pa'' is characterized by the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of heat, and is the source of many functions such as thermoregulation, metabolism, liver function and discriminating intellect. In embryological development, the mind's expression of aggression is manifested as the system of ''mKhris-pa''. There are five distinct subcategories of ''mKhris-pa'' each with specific locations and functions: Ju-Byed mKhris-pa'', ''sGrub-Byed mKhris-pa'', ''mDangs-sGyur mKhris-pa'', ''mThong-Byed mKhris-pa'', ''mDog-Sel mKhris-pa''. • ''Bad-kan'' is characterized by the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of cold, and is the source of many functions such as aspects of digestion, the maintenance of our physical structure, joint health and mental stability. In embryological development, the mind's expression of ignorance is manifested as the system of ''Bad-kan''. There are five distinct subcategories of ''Bad-kan'' each with specific locations and functions: ''rTen-Byed Bad-kan'', ''Myag-byed Bad-kan'', ''Myong-Byed Bad-kan'', ''Tsim-Byed Bad-kan'', Byor-Byed Bad-kan''.

Usage

A key objective of the government of Tibet is to promote traditional Tibetan medicine among the other ethnic groups in China. Once an esoteric monastic secret, the

Tibet University of Traditional Tibetan Medicine Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang ...

and the Qinghai University

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

now offer courses in the practice. In addition, Tibetologists from Tibet have traveled to European countries such as Spain to lecture on the topic. The Tibetan government-in-exile has also kept up the practise of Tibetan Medicine in India since 1961 when it re-established the

(the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute). It now has 48 branch clinics in India and Nepal. The Government of India has approved the establishment of the

National Institute for Sowa-Rigpa (NISR) National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

in Leh to provide opportunities for research and development of Sowa-Rigpa.

References

* *Lowe, Justin (1997) "The wisdom of Tibetan medicine", ''Earth Island Journal'', 0412:2, , 9(1) *Evaluation of medicinal plants as part of Tibetan medicine prospective observational study in Sikkim and Nepal. Witt CM; Berling NEJ; Rinpoche NT; Cuomo M; Willich SN , Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine , 2009-01-0115:1, , 59(7) , , *Analysis of Five Pharmacologically Active Compounds from the Tibetan Medicine Elsholtzia with Micellar Electrokinetic Capillary Chromatography. Chenxu Ding; Lingyun Wang; Xianen Zhao; Yulin Li; Honglun Wang; Jinmao You; Yourui Suo , Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies , 200730:20, , 3069(15) , *HPLC‐APCI‐MS Determination of Free Fatty Acids in Tibet Folk Medicine Lomatogonium rotatum with Fluorescence Detection and Mass Spectrometric Identification. Yulin Li; Xian'en Zhao; Chenxu Ding; Honglun Wang; Yourui Suo; Guichen Chen; Jinmao You , Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies , 200629:18, , 2741(11) , *Stack, Peter. "The Spiritual Logic Of Tibetan Healing.(Review)." San Francisco Chronicle. (Feb 20, 1998) *Dunkenberger, Thomas / "Tibetan Healing Handbook" / Lotus Press - Shangri-La, Twin Lakes, WI / 2000 / *Buddhism, science, and market: the globalisation of Tibetan medicine. JANES, CRAIG R. , Anthropology & Medicine , 2002-129:3, , 267(23) , , *Through the Tibetan Looking Glass. Bauer, James Ladd , Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine , 2000-086:4, , 303(2) , *"So What if There is No Immediate Explanation?" Jobst, Kim A. , Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine , 1998-014:4, , 355(3) ,

External links