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OVERVIEW
 In Tibetan, medicine is called gSoba Rig-pa, the
knowledge of healing. The core of the Tibetan Medical Tradition
(TMT) is over 1200 years old, dating back to the times of a
powerful Tibetan Empire that extended from Ganges to Samarkand,
Turfan, and Tun-Huang. TMT received formative influences from
Indian, Chinese, and Persian medicine, and according to records,
the Tibetan Emperor Srong-bTsan sGam-po (617-698 CE) solicited
the expertise of a physician from the Byzantine areas (Phrom)
who was trained in the Greek medicine of Galen and later founded
three medical lineages in Lhasa.1
Native Tibetan healing knowledge claimed
veterinary science and folk-shamanic healing techniques, the
latter being similar to those of other indigenous people who
recognized and utilized in their surrounding resources (physical
and social environments) an interplay of positive and negative
agents affecting bodily health and mental well-being. These
folk-doctors were drawing knowledge and support from the
physical elements, such as water, air, light, minerals, plants,
animal products, and from a philosophical world-view that drew
meaning in demonizing the `disease’ and psychologically
empowering the ill person by soliciting divine intervention and
performing healing rituals on the afflicted.
The origins of Tibetan medicine are attributed to Sakyamuni, the
historical Buddha (ca. 6th century BCE). Hundreds of years after
his passing away he is said to have manifested as Medicine
Buddha and through his emanations taught the fundamental texts
of the Tibetan medical corpus known as the Four Treatises
(rGyud-bzhi). Contemporary efforts by TMT physicians have
been to distance the medical canon from its divine origins; the
reason being so that amendments to the orthodox medical corpus
would not be viewed by suspicion from Buddhist theologians who
hold the word of the Buddha to be infallible.
TMT continues to be practiced throughout the vast domain of the
Tibetan cultural region. Tibetan medicines are prescribed today
by many thousand Tibetan doctors who have been trained in recent
decades in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Qinghai, Gansu,
Yunnan, and Sichuan province. At least 10 cities in the People’s
Republic of China (PRC) have TMT academic and clinical units,
with 60 hospitals and over 30 pharmaceutical factories operating
throughout the PRC and specially large-scale research, training,
and production facilities in Lhasa and Beijing. Additional TMT
colleges operate in India (Dharamsala, Darjeeling, Ladhak),
Bhutan, and Mongolia (Buryiat). TMT has also spread to Europe
and North America under the guidance of a small number of
Tibetan refugee physicians while Tibetan herbal formulas have
been available as pharmaceutical products in Europe since 1980.
THE MEDICAL CANON
‘The Four Secret Oral Tantras on the Eight
Branches of the Essence of the Elixir of Immortality’ (bDud-rtsi
sNying-po Yan-lag brGyad-pa gSang-ba Man-ngag gi rGyud-bzhi)
is TMT’s medical canon. Although a Sanskrit title of this text
is given in the original Tibetan, modern philological studies
show no evidence of it being a translation of a lost Sanskrit
text. Most likely, the Four
Treatises
is an
original work of Tibetan authorship edited and supplemented by
the court physician, and father of Tibetan Medicine, Yu-thog
Yon-tan mGon-po (708-833 CE). The historical origins of the
Treatises have been discussed elsewhere.2
The TMT medical canon is divided into: 1) the Root Treatise
(rTza-rGyud) which is a synopsis of the principles,
diagnoses and treatments in 6 chapters; 2) the Explanatory
Treatise (bShad rGyud) which contains expanded
theoretical teachings on the Root Treatise; 3) the
Instructional Treatise (Man ngag rGyud) which
contains applied medical teachings; and lastly, 4) Subsequent
Treatise (Phyi-ma rGyud) devoted to the diagnostic
and therapeutic activities of the physician. The Four
Treatises cover the following eight branches of medicine
with varying emphasis: a) 70 chapters on general medicine; b) 3
chapters on paediatrics; c) 3 chapters on gynaecology and
obstetrics; d) 5 chapters on disorders caused by harmful
influences; e) 5 chapters on the treatment of wounds; f) 3
chapters on toxicology; g) 1 chapter on geriatrics; and h) 2
chapters on sexuality (reproductive/aphrodisiacs).
The Four Treatises, a large work of 156 chapters in
toto, attracted many Tibetan medical exegetical texts
and supplements over the centuries, the Vaidūyra mNgon-po
(Blue Beryl) standing as one of its most famous commentaries. It
is beyond the scope of this article to describe the TMT canon in
detail. It suffices to say that nowadays it takes a minimum of
seven years of studying and training in it before a medical
student is qualified to practice as a TMT physician. The
Explanatory Treatise covers diverse subjects such as,
embryology, pathology, conduct, diet, signs of death,
characteristics and classifications of diseases, pharmacology,
the attributes of a practicing physician, etc. The
Instructional Treatise, by far the most extensive of the
Treatises, is divided into 92 chapters and lays the framework of
the primary and secondary pathological causes of disease, its
classification, its diagnosis, medication and the course of
treatment to be followed. Here we find treatments for poisoning,
indigestion, tumours, dropsy, epidemic fever, small pox,
colitis, muscle inflammation, cardiac, pulmonary, hepatic,
spleen, stomach, genital and intestinal disorders, anorexia,
diabetes, gout, nerve disorders, insanity, epilepsy, wounds,
etc. Lastly, the Subsequent Treatise provides a lucid
exposition of the practical techniques which are to be applied
in 4 parts: methods of diagnosis; the compounding of medications
which cure ailments; cathartic procedures; and external
therapies, such as acupuncture and moxibustion.3
PATHOGENESIS
In the opening lines of the second chapter of the
Four Treatises we read:
At that time of that life the Teacher (Sakyamuni), the
Surpassing Conqueror, the Sustainer of Life, the
Priest of Medicine, the King of Beryl Light entered
into the meditative state called the ‘King of Medicine which
Pacifies the Four Hundred and Four illnesses.’
Immediately upon his entering into equanimity the emanation of
as many as one hundred thousand coloured rays from his
heart-centre to the ten directions removed the faults of the
defects in the minds of all sentient beings, the migrators of
the ten directions.
After having pacified all the illnesses of the three poisons
(lust, anger, confusion) which arise from delusion, having
gathered the light rays back to his heart-centre, an emanated
teacher, a seer, one called Primordial-Wisdom-of-Awareness,
having been projected from the Buddha’s heart, having appeared
and settled in the space in front of the Medicine Buddha
addressed the retinues of seers with these words:
’Ho! Friends know this!
Whoever desires to remain without illness and whoever desires to
heal illness ought to learn the oral instructions of the
knowledge of healing.
Whoever desires an interval of long life should learn the oral
instructions of the knowledge of healing.
Whoever desires to accomplish Dharma, prosperity and happiness,
should learn the oral instructions on the knowledge of healing.
Whoever desires to liberate any migrator from the misery of
illness, and whoever desires to be carried with respect from
others, ought to learn the oral instructions of the knowledge of
healing.4
According to the Buddhist tradition, Prince Siddhartha (later to
become Sakyamuni Buddha) abandoned a sheltered life of comfort
in search of a higher understanding upon the shock and despair
he felt at the sight of a sick person, an old feeble man, and
then a stiff corpse lying on a funeral procession. The healing
process as a dominant Buddhist metaphor for spiritual
development goes back to the times of early Buddhism when
monk-physicians employed their healing powers and knowledge as
means of popularizing the Buddhist teachings and converting
non-believers. In Tibet, the preservation and development of
medical literature, pharmacology and clinical practice did not
take place entirely within Tibetan monastic contexts. They were
systematically included in them at least from the
seventeenth-century onwards.5
TMT is a holistic healing system that employs several
complimentary and semi-autonomous interpretive layers for
classifying illness, offering diagnosis, and prescribing
treatments. At the deeper metapsychological layer it locates the
manifestation of all illness in the motility of consciousness. A
migrating mind-stream is one that is not fully awakened but
inhabits and attaches itself to mental-states that are by their
nature fragmentary and transient. Man suffers in his present
embodiment by failing to recognize his own insubstantiality and
that of all dependent-arising phenomena. Caught up chasing after
or withdrawing from his own delusive projections of a
self-grasping reality he misses to abide in his own nature of
mind which is a piercing, stainless and unobstructed awareness.
Buddhism maintains that the most profound healing process is
spiritual healing which in effect means the elimination of three
toxic states of mind (dug-gSum), namely, the three
poisons of lust, anger and confusion. These destabilizing
mental-states, if prolonged, they give rise to a systemic
pollution that expresses itself in three kinds of health
disorders. These disorders are explained as a disruption of the
three nyes-pa. In TMT, physiology and psychopathology are
discussed within the apparatus of a single unitary theory of
pathomechanics.6 Tibetan medical theory correlates
Buddhist metapsychology with pathogenesis and explains illness
as a disequilibrium of the three nyes-pa, namely,
irregular presence of wind (rLung), bile (mKhris-pa)
and phlegm (Bad-kan) affecting the physical body and its
subtle counterpart, the body-without-organs.
Short-term causes of nyes-pa imbalance are
attributed to time and season, the influence of disruptive
spirits, improper diet, and inappropriate behaviour.
The nyes-pa
The term nyes-pa has been translated, in Galenic fashion,
as the humors wind, bile and phlegm. It should be noted, that
nyes-pa is a TMT diagnostic matrix that has no exact Western
equivalent. In Tibetan medical literature nyes-pa do
function as humors in that they ‘may be blocked or constricted
in their flowing, are accumulated and discharged, and may be
deficient or excessive in quantity’.
rLung
(wind), the first of the nyes-pa, is the ‘insubstantial
agent of all physiological movement.’7 For this
reason it is often described in terms of movement, lightness and
breath and is linked with functions such as, respiration,
urination, defecation, ejaculation, burping, menstruation,
speech and mental concentration.
mKhris-pa
(bile), which is not the
bile which comes from our gall bladder,
has the
qualities of fire and is generally associated with metabolism,
digestion and body-heat. mKhris-pa is said to be
responsible for hunger, thirst, digestion, and vision.
Bad-kan
(phlegm) is explained in terms of restraint and moistness. It
is responsible for regulating body fluids, the six tastes of
sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent and acrid, the
satisfaction of the five senses, and the smooth operation of the
body’s joints.
The body-without-organs
In TMT clinical practice there are 25 constituents of the body.
These include the seven tissues: chyme, blood, flesh, fat, bone,
marrow, and semen; the three excrements of urine, faeces and
sweat, and the five sub-types of each of the three nyes-pa,
each coordinating a different set of physiological functions.
There are five principal organs: heart, lungs, spleen-pancreas,
liver and kidneys. And also the six vessel organs: large and
small intestines, stomach, gall bladder, urinary bladder and
seminal vesicles (gonads and ovaries).
In addition to this anatomical typology, which relates to the
Western medical tradition, TMT and other Asian health-care
systems utilize in their diagnosis and treatment a subtle body
which is said to be localized inside the physical body and is in
dynamic relation with all mental and physiological activities.
This body-without-organs has no clear counterpart in Western
medicine. It is permeated by 84,000 channels of varying size and
density - their paths coincide with those of many blood vessels
and nerve fibres, often following the same course or winding
around them. They are divided into 4 main varieties: 1) channels
of formation which develop from the navel of the foetus; 2)
channels of existence which intersect the brain, heart, navel
and genitals; 3) connecting channels that relate to Western
medicine’s circulatory system and peripheral nervous system; and
4) life-protecting channels.8
The body-without-organs also contains energy-wheels (’khor-lo)
that closely correspond to the chakra system in Buddhist
and Hindu tantric yogic traditions. These energy-wheels are
explained as psychophysiological centres arrayed along the
central axis of the body just forward of the spiral column. Each
centre coordinates a different aspect of bodily and/or mental
operation through one of the five sub-types of energy-currents
that traverse it. The five seminal energy-wheels are located at
the forehead, throat region, heart region, upper abdomen, and
central pelvis. Just as imbalances of nyes-pa can be
detected in any of the regions of the gross anatomy, in the
organs and tissues, they can also be diagnosed across the
body-without-organs. In this respect, illness is recognized as a
disruption of the energy flows across an extensive
psychophysical network of main and secondary subtle channels and
coordinating energy centres.
DIAGNOSIS
According to TMT’s medical canon, a physician
has 38 methods of diagnosis at his disposal. These are divided
into visual diagnosis, sphygmology, and interrogation. Six
methods of visual diagnosis consist of checking all parts of the
body with special attention paid to the condition of the
patient’s tongue and urine sample. Analysis of the urine
involves checking for colour, steam and sediment. Dr. Tsarong
explains:
The balanced and healthy urine has a clear whitish-yellow
colour. Its steam is of sufficient quantity and duration, and
when stirred vigorously with a stick, medium-sized bubbles
appear. When the steam evaporates, it disappears
concentrically from the peripheral to the centre. The urine
sediments are light and properly diffused.
9
TMT sphygmology is a complex science that involves knowledge of
the Tibetan calendar (for seasonal pulse changes), thorough
training, and intuition. Its origins probably go back to the
famous Chinese physician Pien-chueh (5th century BCE) who is
said to have discovered the diagnostic implications of the
pulse. The TMT physician ‘roughly measures the length of the
patient’s distal phalanx of the thumb from the first
wrinkle of the wrist and then places his index, medius, and ring
fingers on the arteria radialis’ and proceeds to
‘correctly identify the patient’s connatural pulse.’10
The connatural pulse is classified, regardless the anatomical
gender of the patient, as either male, female, or neuter and by
its distinct pulsation the physician may correlate the type of
nyes-pa imbalance the patient is suffering from.11
Interrogation forms an important clinical aspect of the overall
diagnosis. The TMT doctor determines the type of illness and its
treatment in a private QA session. Usually, 29 standard
questions suffice to determine the site of the illness and
recognize the causative factors of the disorder. Studying the
signs and symptoms of disease involves the doctor asking the
patient directly about his illness, diet, lifestyle, and mental
well-being. For example, a patient suffering from rLung
(wind) disorder may experience cold chills, dullness of the
senses, pain especially in the hips, waist, bones and joints.
TREATMENT
Generally, there are many methods of treatment that may be
prescribed by TMT physicians. Faithful to the principles of
viewing the human body as a delicate state of dynamic
equilibrium between mental and physical operations, TMT
therapies are effective over time and are divided below from the
mildest form of intervention to the most extreme. Often a
combination of the following treatments is prescribed.
1. Dietary Therapy.
Three chapters in the Four Treatises are devoted to this
simple, yet effective form of medical intervention often
neglected by Western medical practice. In TMT, specific advise
is given on proper dietary regiments to aid the healing process.
The consumption of grains, oils, meats, and beverages have been
studied to possess inherent properties that in different
seasons, climate, quantities, and in relation to different body
constitutions, may offset or aid the organism towards recovery.
Likewise, in TMT prognostication there is a causal relationship
between improper dietary habits and several nyes-pa
disorders.
2. Lifestyle Therapy.
A majority of health problems can be directly or indirectly
linked to mental and emotional factors, behavioural patterns,
relationship-formations, and repressing habits. Examples of
these include alcoholism, obesity, anxiety, mental disorders,
hypertension, and heart disease. TMT physicians do not consider
medication as the first option of therapeutic intervention.
Advise on the patient's behaviour and lifestyle is essential for
treatment and prevention of future ailments. In Buddhist
philosophy and psychology all illnesses have a corresponding
mental reality. By reducing our mental afflictions we can
participate in an enlightened lifestyle. Contemplation,
compassion towards our surroundings, reducing attachment and
anger, and sustaining joy towards life, are some immediate ways
to take control of our daily psychophysical states. Lifestyle
therapy is about healing the mind-body organism not just of the
symptoms but of the underlying causes of disorder. It is also
about learning to cope with understanding while in dis-ease.
3. Pharmacological Intervention.
A large part of Tibetan medical literature is
dedicated to pharmacology. Unfortunately, no comprehensive
studies in Western languages exist, possibly to the difficulty
of determining Latin or Greek equivalents of these TMT agents to
be found mainly in Tibet, adjacent Himalayan regions, and in
parts of China. For Dr. Tsarong,12 the most well
known systematic work for a Tibetan Materia Medica is the
Dri-med Shel-gong Shal-phreng written by Geshe Tenzing
Phuntsog in 1717 CE. In it are enumerated 2,294 main raw drugs
classified below according to their source and pharmacodynamic
utility:
Source Classification:
Pharmacodynamic Properties:
1. Precious stones, (Rin-po-che), e.g.,
turquoise; anti-toxin,
hepatic, phlogistic
2. Rocks and Minerals, (rDo), e.g., serpentine;
constipative,
febrifuge
3. Soil and Minerals, (Sa), e.g.,
sulphur; haemostatic (esp., nose)
4. Trees, (Shing), e.g., Santalum album Linn; febrifuge (heart & liver)
5. Mucilaginous, (rTsi), e.g.,
musk;anti-toxin, nephritic, vermifuge
6. Shrubs, (Thang), e.g., Glycyrrhiza glabra Linn; antitussive, expectorant
7. Plants, (Ngo), e.g., Picrorhiza kurroa
Royle; hepatic,
coagulant, febrifuge
TMT physicians possess specialized training in collecting these
pharmaceutical agents from nature. In their time-consuming
preparation, as medications to be administered, they vary from
decoctions, powders, general pills, precious-substance pills,
butter, and syrups.
4. Accessory Therapies.
Many disorders require additional medical intervention. These
are divided into mild and drastic measures. Among mild measures,
treatment with gentle massages using various medicinal oils is
suggested for diseases of the nerves and muscles, as well as
pain and insomnia. Likewise, medicinal and natural spring baths
are recommended to treat an assortment of skin disorders as well
as, chronic arthritis, gout, rheumatism, and stiffness of the
extremities. Many disorders, caused by proliferation of bad
blood are treated by bloodletting at one of the body's
seventy-seven bloodletting points. Venesection, cupping,
moxibustion, and golden-needle therapy are considered more
drastic and may be used to stimulate the energy flows across the
body-without-organs. Surgery is usually discouraged, yet it may
be approved in minor forms for removing foreign bodies,
cauterizing abscesses, curetting of severely damaged tissues,
etc, and as last resort treatment.13
CLOSING REMARKS
TMT is a multifaceted and subtle traditional healing system and
a comprehensive discussion of its health-care system is beyond
the scope of this paper. I have considered some aspects of the
tradition which I recognized as integral for any basic
understanding of the subject. First, I gave an overture on TMT
origins and present status. Second, I introduced its medical
canon. Third, I sketched the aetiology of illness from a Tibetan
Buddhist perspective. Fourth, I disclosed some of its diagnostic
methods. And lastly, I enumerated different treatments
available. I am aware at taking the risk of oversimplifying a
potentially more intricate medical system and at worse,
misrepresenting it in the process. I am not a TMT physician, nor
have I been trained in the Tibetan healing system, and for the
writing of this article I had to rely on my personal experience
with Tibetan medicine and religion, a substantial bibliography
on the subject, and the resources at the Tibetan Medical College
in Dharamsala, India.
Although a systematic research by Western medical scientists is
still lacking to determine the efficacy of TMT’s pharmaceutical
regimes, there has been much research carried out in Lhasa, for
example on the Tibetan king of herbs (rhodiola)
growing on rocky slopes at 3,500-5,000 meters. The Tibet
Institute of High Altitude Biology has conducted extensive
research on this herb of the Crassulaceae family,
confirming that it is of benefit as an adaptogen with specific
use against mountain sickness. A capsule with rhodiola
and hippophae (plus lycium fruit) is produced by one
factory in the PRC and is promoted as a treatment for altitude
sickness.14
Despite what may be the future outcomes of Western
evaluation research on TMT traditional methods of treatment,
in my opinion, there are many benefits in
pursuing research in ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacy, as well
as, in the individual and collective efforts of health-care
specialists to utilize healing technologies across Eastern and
Western health-care systems. For example, TMT even though is
lacking in advanced surgery techniques and pharmacobiology, it
might have much to offer in the field of holistic
psychopathology, mental disorders, patient-doctor relationships,
and in the patient’s own understanding of his illness as a
contributing factor to recovery. In the words of a TMT
specialist, Dr. Lobsang Rapgay:
Change is inevitable because it is the law of nature for all
things to undergo transformation, and this is true of every
aspect of existence. And yet in medicine, it would be wishful
thinking to even imagine that any system can replace the
Western orthodox system of medicine, for after all it is the
only system that is universally recognized. At this stage, the
scope of systems like the Tibetan one is to identify areas
like psychiatry, doctor-patient relationships, the way to care
for a patient, treatment and ways to handle terminal patients,
and so on, and see how its own traditional methods can be
modified to possibly serve as adjunctive methods of therapy in
the practice of Western medicine.15
REFERENCES
1. Beckwith, I. C. ‘The Introduction of Greek
Medicine into Tibet in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries.’
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 99/2, 1979,
297-313.
2. Emmerick, R.E.. ‘Sources of the Rgyud-bźi.’ Zeitschrift
der Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Suppl. III/2, 1977,
1135-1136.
3. Tsering Dhondup, Dr. How to Study Tibetan Medicine: A
Commentary on the Root Tantra. Tselha Dolmaling Institute,
Kangra, 2003, 33-37.
4. Based on the translation by Jacobson, E. Situated
Knowledge in Classical Tibetan Medicine: Psychiatric Aspects.
(PhD thesis), Harvard University, Cambridge, 2000,
93-95.
5. Ibid., 71.
6. Ibid.,154.
7. Ibid.
8. This typology of channels is summarized from Clark’s
translation of the first two volumes of the Four Treatises,
Clark, B. The Quintessence Tantras of Tibetan Medicine.:
Snowlion Publications, Ithaca, 1995; and discussed in Jacobson,
E. Situated Knowledge in Classical Tibetan Medicine:
Psychiatric Aspects. (PhD thesis), Harvard University,
Cambridge, 2000, 161-162.
9. T.J. Tsarong (ed). Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine
According to the Rgyud-Bzhi. Tibetan Medical Centre,
Dharamsala 1995, 17.
10. Ibid., 20-21.
11. Donden Yeshi, ‘Pulse Diagnosis in Tibetan Medicine.’
Tibetan Medicine Series
No. 1, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, 1980,
13-19; Rapgay Lobsang, ‘Pulse Analysis in Tibetan Medicine.’
Tibetan Medicine Series, No. 3, Library of Tibetan Works
and Archives, Dharamsala, 1981, 45-52.
12. T.J. Tsarong (ed). Fundamentals of Tibetan
Medicine According to the Rgyud-Bzhi. Tibetan Medical
Centre, Dharamsala 1995, 38.
13. Burang, T. The Tibetan Art of Healing.
Robinson & Watkins Books Ltd., London, 1974.
14. Subhuti Dharmananda, (PhD, Director), ‘Tibetan Herbal
Medicine with examples of treating lung diseases using
rhodiola and hippophae.’ Institute for Traditional
Medicine, Portland, Oregon, 2001. Article available at:
www.itmoline.org/arts/tibherbs.htm
15.Interview for Vajradhatu Sun. ‘Mind Made Health - A
Tibetan Perspective,’ August 1983.
FURTHER READING
Tibetan Authors (in English):
Dawa Norbu. An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine. Tibetan
Review, Delhi, 1976.
Lobsang Dolma Khangkar, (Dr.) Lectures on Tibetan Medicine.
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, 1998.
Rechung Rimpoche. Tibetan Medicine Illustrated in Original
Texts. Welcome Institute of the History of Medicine, London,
1973.
__________. Tibetan Medicine. University of California
Press, Berkeley, 1976.
Thondup, Tulku. The Healing Power of Mind. Shambhala
Publications, Boston, 1996.
T.J. Tsarong. Handbook of Traditional Tibetan Drugs.
Tibetan Medical Publications, Kalimpong, 1986.
Tsewang Dolkar, (Dr.) Journey into the Mystery of Tibetan
Medicine. Yarlung Publications, Delhi, 1990.
Yeshi Dhonden, (Dr.) The Ambrosia Heart Tantra. Library
of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, 1995.
__________. Introductory Lectures on Tibetan Medicine.
Center for South Asian Studies, University of Virginia,
manuscript translation, Charlottesville, 1981.
Other Authors:
Aschoff, J. and Rösing I. (eds). Tibetan Medicine: East Meets
West - West Meets East. Proceedings of the International
Symposium, University of Ulm, 1996.
Aschoff, J. Annotated Bibliography of Tibetan Medicine
(1789-1995). Fabri Verlag, Ulm, 1996.
Asshauer, E. (M.D.) Heilkunst vom Dach der Welt,
Tibets sanfte
Medizin.
Herder Freiburg, 1993.
Birnbaum, R. The Healing Buddha. Shambala Publications,
Boulder, 1979.
Cai Jinfreng. `A Preliminary Study of the Early History of
Tibetan Medicine.’ Journal of the History of Medicine,
10/1, 1980, 49-55.
Clifford, T. Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry.
Samuel Weiser, York, 1984.
Dummer, T. Tibetan Medicine and Other Holistic Health-care
Systems. Routledge, London, 1988.
Epstein M and Rapgay L. ‘Mind and Mental Disorders in Tibetan
Medicine’. Tibetan Review, 7-15, 1982.
Finckh, E. (M.D.) Studies in Tibetan Medicine.: Snow Lion
Publications, Ithaca, 1988.
__________. Fundamentos da Medicina Tibetana. Editora
Chakpori, Brazil, 1985.
Guo Jiening, et al., ‘Tibetan Medicine: Historical Development
and Theoretical System.’ Chinese Journal of Ethnomedicine and
Ethnopharmacy, 1995; (14): 1-5.
Janes, C. ‘The Transformations of Tibetan Medicine.’ Medical
Anthropology Quarterly, 1995, 9/1: 6-39.
Matzner, Y.; Sallon, S. ‘The effect of Padma 28, a traditional
Tibetan herbal preperation, on human neutrophil function.
Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Immunology 46, 1995, 13-23.
Meyer, F. Gso-Ba Rig-pa. Le système médical tibétain.:
Centre National de la Recherche Scietntifique, Paris, 1981.
Ryan, M. ‘Efficacy of the Tibetan treatment for Arthritis.’
Social Science and Medicine, 44/4, 1997, 535-539.
Parfionovitch, Y.; Gyurme Dorje; and Mayer, F. (eds). Tibetan
Medical Paintings. Two volumes. Serindia Publications,
London, 1992.
Semichov, B. V. ‘Tibetan Medicine in BMASSR.’ Newsletter of
Ethnology, 5-6, 1932.
Smulski, H.; Wojcicki, J. ‘Placebo-controlled double-blind study
to investigate the efficacy of the Tibetan plant preparation
PADMA 28 in the treatment intermittent claudication.’
Forschende Komplementärmedizin 1, 1994, 18-26.
Vaidya B. D. Materia Medica of Tibetan Medicine. Sri-Satguru
Publications, Delhi, 1994.
Zysk, K.G. Asceticism &Healing in Ancient
India: Medicine
in the Buddhist Monastery.
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991.
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