1
History of Tibetan Medicine
Methods for keeping healthy and promoting longevity have been present in Tibet for many thousands of years. For example, Tibetans know that drinking hot water will relieve indigestion and placing old melted butter in cuts and wounds will stop bleeding and promote healing.
Tibetan medicine is a traditional system of medicine which has been practised for over 2500 years. Tibetan medicine originates from the pre-Buddhist Bon era of Tibetan history. During this time there was extensive medical knowledge in Tibet and medical study was based on the four Bon medical texts known as gSo-rig Bhoom-Shi. This period in Tibetan medical history lasted from sixth century BC to seventh century AD.
However, in the seventh century changes were brought about and the influence of other medical systems became incorporated into Tibetan medical knowledge. During the reign of King Songsten Gampo the first international conference on Tibetan medicine was held in Samye in Tibet. Songsten Gampo invited to this conference many physicians from neighbouring countries such as Persia, India and China. In the eighth century, during the reign of King Trisong Detsen, Buddhism replaced Bon as the state religion of Tibet. This led to the suppression of Bon religion, culture and medical knowledge in Tibet.
In 762 Yuthog Yongten Gonpo, the court physician to Trisong Detsen, established the first Tibetan medical college in Tibet in Kongpo, the valley of medicine. Here he systematized the gSo-Ârig Bhoom-Shi into the nine wordings in a single sentence and replaced the old Bon titles and conclusions with Buddhist ones. During this time he added medical knowledge from neighbouring countries such as India and China. His work is the basis for the rGyud-bzhi â the four Tibetan medical tantras.
There are many books which state that Tibetan medical knowledge is solely derived from India and China. This is not true as Tibet has had its own medical knowledge for thousands of years and it is important to remember that the Bon and Buddhist eras comprise two different historical periods of Tibet.
In the twelfth century Yuthog the Younger further researched and edited the rGyud-bzhi. This version has remained to this day the standard and most authoritative of Tibetan medical texts. It continues to be studied and practised by Tibetan physicians.
In the fifteenth century the Tibetan medical system divided itself into two main schools, the Jangpa and the Zurpa. In the seventeenth century the Fifth Dalai Lama was a great patron of Tibetan medicine, and his regent, Sangye Gyamtso, was a great Tibetan physician and scholar who wrote the commentary on the Four Medical Tantras, which is known as the Blue Beryl. In 1696 the Chagpori College of Medicine was founded by the Fifth Dalai Lama. In 1916 the Thirteenth Dalai Lama founded the Men-Tsee-Kang School of Medicine and Astrology in Lhasa, Tibet.
After the Tibetan uprising in 1959 Tibetans went into exile in India and in 1961, under the initiative of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Government in Exile established the Tibetan Medical Centre in Dharamsala, India. This was built up by the hard work of doctors such as Dr. Yeshi Dhonden and the late Dr. Jamyang Tashi Tsona, both of whom were physicians to His Holiness. Since 1982 Tibetan medicine has expanded greatly due to the late Dr. Tenzin Choedak (the senior physician to His Holiness the Dalai Lama) coming to India from Tibet and bringing with him a vast and profound Tibetan medical knowledge, especially with regard to Tibetan pharmaceutical formulae.
At present there are over 53 branch clinics of the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute as well as many private clinics in India, Nepal and a few doctors in Europe, such as myself, who also have private practices. From 1961 to 2012 there have been 246 Tibetan doctors who have successfully qualified from the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute. Since 1979 even in Tibet the communist Chinese have revived Tibetan medicine despite the fact they have no respect whatsoever for Tibetâs religion and culture. Nevertheless, they have opened many clinics and places for study such as the Lhasa Men-Tsee-Kang. For the Chinese seeing is believing.
In 1998 the first International Congress on Tibetan Medicine was held outside Tibet in Washington DC where over 200 Tibetan doctors, Tibetan Buddhist lamas, Western doctors, scientists and psychologists participated. Opened by His Holiness the Dalai Lama the Congress was a great success. The second International Congress on Tibetan Medicine was held in Washington DC in 2003. In 2004 the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine (CCTM) was established in Dharamsala, HP, India. Under the CCTM a total of 412 fully qualified Tibetan doctors are now registered throughout the world.
2
gSo-ba Rig-pa
The Science of Healing
Tibetan medicine is a complete medical system. It is one of the oldest surviving forms of ancient medicine and it has been in use for over 2500 years. For many centuries Tibetan medicine has been successfully practised in Tibet, China, Mongolia, Buddhist regions of Russia and Central Asia, and the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladakh and Northern India.
It is called gSo-ba Rig-pa, or the science of healing, and is based on the Four Medical Tantras â the rGyud-bzhi. These are the root tantra, explanatory tantra, instructional tantra and the subsequent tantra. The root tantra, which contains six chapters, gives an overall view of the rGyud-bzhi; the explanatory tantra contains 31 chapters and explains and describes in detail the human body, including embryology, anatomy and physiology; the instructional tantra contains 92 chapters dealing with the causes, symptoms and treatment of many different kinds of diseases; the subsequent tantra contains 25 chapters which deal with diagnosis and pharmacology. In addition to the four tantras there are two concluding chapters which condense all the preceding information. This gives a total of 156 chapters with 5900 verses.
To be a fully qualified Tibetan physician we have to study these four medical tantras for a minimum of seven years. The first four years are spent studying the Tibetan medical texts where we have to memorize approximately 40 specific chapters. One month each year is also spent collecting herbs in the Himalayas. In addition to studying the medical texts we also have to study Tibetan linguistics, grammar, poetry and have a complete understanding of basic Tibetan Buddhist teachings contained in works such as Shantidevaâs Guide to the Bodhisattvaâs Way of Life. In the fifth year we have to take both oral and written exams on the Four Medical Tantras and at the end of the fifth year we take the Medicine Buddha initiation both as a blessing and in order to enhance our powers of healing as practitioners of Tibetan medicine. Like a beautiful woman for whom jewels and fine clothes merely magnifies and reinforces her beauty, so the initiation magnifies and reinforces the healing powers of the practitioner. The sixth and seventh years are spent at a branch clinic of the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute where practical training is given in pulse reading, urinalysis and dealing with patients.
Compared to other forms of alternative medicine in the West, Tibetan medicine is very new and this is because there are very few fully qualified Tibetan doctors here; there are no more than eight of us in both Europe and the United States. The uniqueness of Tibetan medicine is that it is based on Buddhist philosophical principles, astrology and the close relationship between the mind and body. The basic principle of Tibetan medicine is balancing the three principal energies or Nyes-pa-gsum. The three principal energies are Loong, mKhris-pa and Bad-Kan.
Loong (pronounced as loong) is the subtle flow of energy which circulates throughout our body and aids all movements and activities connected with mind, speech and body. mKhrisÂ-pa (pronounced as tree-pa) is heat energy which circulates throughout our body and balances bodily temperature, digestion and vitality. Bad-Kan (pronounced as beh-ken) is a fluid energy which circulates throughout our body. It keeps our joints flexible and aids the functioning of bodily stability and the lymphatic system.
These Tibetan terms are being left as they are throughout this book as there are no equivalent translations in English for them. Therefore if you wish to understand the explanation of Tibetan medicine given in this book, it is very important to get used to the terms Loong, mKhris-pa and Bad-Kan.
When the three principal energies are in balance we are healthy and when they are out of balance we are sick. In the Tibetan medical texts the main long-term cause of illnesses and suffering is ma-rig-pa, or ignorance. This ignorance generates in turn the three poisons of desire, anger and closed-mindedness. The short-term causes are improper diet, unwholesome lifestyle and seasonal factors. A combination of these causes makes us sick and the physician first has to diagnose the illness through questioning and listening with a sympathetic ear. The physician then makes an overall observation of the patient, especially through tongue diagnosis and urinalysis (in which the practitioner looks at the colour, smell, bubbles, steam and sediments of the urine). Finally the physician reads the pulse of the patient, and for the Tibetan physician pulse reading is a great source of information.
Once diagnosis is made treatment can begin. The main aim of the treatment is to balance and correct the three principal energies. For example, if one of the energies is in excess treatment is given to decrease it or if one of the energies is deficient treatment is given to increase it. Tibetan medicine is not based on any magic, mystery or miracle cures, rather it is based on an ancient system of medicine which has been passed down from generation to generation. Tibetan medicine today is the culmination of the experience and knowledge of enlightened physicians through the course of many centuries â just like honey collected in a pot cannot be produced from a single flower but is the sum of many flowers. There is no end to knowledge, and with the continual arising of new diseases Tibetan medical research goes on, and at the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute there is a research department producing new forms of Tibetan medicine aimed at treating modern diseases.
The Tibetan physician aims to treat the patient first of all through dietary advice according to each individualâs body constitution, and through advice on leading a wholesome lifestyle. If this is not enough, medicine is prescribed. Tibetan pharmacology is extremely rich in both depth and variety. It makes use of gems, minerals, metals, soils, saps, woods and herbal plants. Medicines can be a combination of as little as three ingredients or as many as 157. At present there are approximately 250 different types of medicine which are manufactured. One of these preparations is a medicine called Padma 28 and this is now commercially available. Middlesex hospital in London has performed clinical trials on it and it has proven to be effective for vascular diseases (a condition caused by hardening of the arteries in the legs) and there is the possibility it will help in the treatment of hepatitis B and C. When one considers that there are 250 other forms of Tibetan medicine to be explored it gives great hope for the potential of Tibetan medicine to help as many people as possible. Performing or physical therapies are used as a last resort in Tibetan medicine. At present we use moxibustion, cupping and golden needle therapy.
There is also an advanced form of Tibetan meditation known as tomo yoga which is practised by training the subtle flow of Loong energy. At the International Congress on Tibetan Medicine the researcher Herbert Benson from Harvard Medical School gave a slide show of Tibetan monks practising tomo yoga. Dr. Charles Raison from the University of California commented that tomo meditation may offer more understanding about depression and open up the possibility of nonÂpharmacological self-help. The monks were meditating in conditions just a few degrees above freezing yet they were able to completely dry wet sheets that were wrapped around them. Researchers from the University of California in San Francisco have also discovered that raising the peripheral skin temperature during deep meditation accelerates the healing of wounds just as effectively as the use of antibiotics.
Astrology is also connected to Tibetan medicine. It is considered in the preparation of certain special medicines, during the time of herb collection and when performing therapies such as moxibustion. All medicines are then blessed and consecrated according to Tibetan Buddhist rituals. When I was studying at the Tibetan Medical College and also working at the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute clinic, we would recite the Medicine Buddha prayers and mantra every morning before we began our day.
Tibetan medicine is beneficial for chronic diseases such as digestive problems, arthritis, asthma, skin problems, problems related to the liver and kidneys, sinus problems, insomnia, anxiety, heart disease and problems related to the central nervous system. Tibetan gSo-ba Rig-pa also treats the roots of the disease and not just the symptoms. The Tibetan medical texts give the following example: a failure to treat the roots or the cause of the disease is t...
