4 Tantras Of Tibetan Medicine

[Clinio Lofton]

TheTibetan medical system is based upon Indian Buddhist literature (for example Abhidharma and Vajrayana tantras) and Ayurveda.[1]In addition to the Tibetan areas of China, the areas in which Tibetan medicine has spread include the Ladakh and Sikkim regions of northern India, the western and northern parts of Nepal and the entire territory of Bhutan. China's Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and the Mongolian-populated areas in the northeast have historically been greatly influenced by Tibetan medicine. The traditional medicine of Mongolia and the Buryat and Tuva regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the Republic of Kalmykia, located in the Volga River basin, is also predominantly Tibetan medicine. 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 which apply medical diagnostic logic to suffering.[2][3] The use of the caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), a world-famous medicinal and economic fungus, originates in Tibetan medicine.[4]

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 སྟོནཔོགཤེནརབམིབོཆེ 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.[10]

གཡུཐོགཡོནཏནམགོནཔོ (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 སསྐྱདགོན (Sakya Monastery).[11] The ཏཱལའིབླམསྐུཕྲེངལྔབ (5th Dalai Lama) supported སྡེསྲིདསངསརྒྱསརྒྱམཚོ (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.[2]

In the 18th century, the missionaries who arrived in Tibet gave a detailed introduction to Tibetan medicine in their travelogues, and in 1789 the British surgeon Robert Saunder published an article on the concocting process of Tibetan medicines.[12] In the 1850s, the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, opened a clinic of Tibetan medicine and a specialized school of Tibetan medicine.[13][14] In 1898, a part of the Tibetan medical masterpiece Four Medical Classics, was translated into Russian.[15] In Poland, Tibetan medicine was practiced in the 1920s, and two presidents, Stanisław Wojciechowski and Ignacy Mościcki, were both treated with Tibetan medicine.[16] In 1969, the PADMA AG in Zurich, Switzerland, the first Western company specializing in the production and sale of Tibetan medicine was established.[17]

In September 1959, the Tibetan People's Government merged "Menzikang" (སྨནརྩིསཁང) and Chagpori College of Medicine and established the Lhasa Tibetan Hospital on this basis. In September 1961, at the congress of Tibetan doctors in Lhasa area, Chingpo Lobu was appointed as the director of Lhasa Tibetan Hospital. On September 1, 1980, the Tibet Autonomous Region expanded Lhasa Tibetan Hospital to become Tibetan Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region (西藏自治区藏医院), laying a solid foundation for the vigorous development of Tibetan medicine.[18] In 1999, Tibet Nordicam Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. became the first high-tech pharmaceutical listed enterprise born in Tibet Autonomous Region.[19] In 2006, the first Tibetan medicine group in Tibet Autonomous Region was established in Lhasa, marking the establishment of a mature modern enterprise system in the Tibetan medicine industry. In 2023, Tibetan Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region became the National Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine (Tibetan Medicine) preparatory units.[20]

The Four Tantras (Gyuzhi, རྒྱུདབཞི) is a native Tibetan text incorporating Indian, Greco-Arab, and Traditional Chinese medicine systems.[21] The Four Tantras is believed to have been created in the twelfth century and still today is considered the basis of Tibetan medical practise.[22] 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.[2] The basis of the Four Tantras is to keep the three bodily humors in balance (wind rlung, bile mkhris pa, phlegm bad kan).[23][24]

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 [often translated as humors]: rLung (pron. Loong), mKhris-pa (pron. Tri-pa) [often translated as bile], and Bad-kan (pron. Bae-kan) [often translated as phlegm].[28]

A key objective of the People's Government of Tibet Autonomous Region 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 and the Qinghai University Medical School now offer courses in the practice. In 2000, an international academic conference on Tibetan medicine was successfully held in Lhasa to discuss the current situation and prospects of the development of the Tibetan medicine industry.[29] In December 2003, Nine bureaus and institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such as the Northwest Plateau Institute, the Kunming Institute of Zoology and Animal Science and the Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and experts from the relevant departments of the Tibet Autonomous Region, convened in Chengdu to hold a seminar on the cooperation between the academy and the region for the promotion of the modernization of Tibetan medicines. In May 2004, six national projects were approved on the promotion of modernization of Tibetan medicines held in Beijing.[30]

The Government of India has approved the establishment of the National Institute for Sowa-Rigpa (NISR) in Leh to provide opportunities for research and development of Sowa-Rigpa.[31] In addition, Tibetologists from Tibet have traveled to European countries such as Spain to lecture on the topic.

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. It originated in the Bon era of Tibet. For many centuries Tibetan medicine has been successfully practised in Tibet, 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 it is based on the four medical tantras called 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 thirty one chapters which explain and describe in detail the human body, including embryology, anatomy and physiology; the instructional tantra which contains ninety two chapters deals with the causes, symptoms and treatment of many different kinds of diseases; the subsequent tantra contains twenty five 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 memorise around forty 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 as well as gaining an understanding of basic Tibetan Buddhist teachings contained in works such as Shantidevas Guide to the Bodhisattvas 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. This initiation is similar to a beautiful woman; when she is dressed in fine clothes and jewels she looks even more beautiful. 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 here there are very few fully qualified Tibetan doctors; there are no more than eight of us in Europe and the around 15 in the United States and Canada. 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 Nyipa sum. The three principal energies are Loong, mKhris-pa and Bad-Kan.

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