Tibetan Medicine: Basic Principles

Introduction and History

I must mention before we begin that I am not a doctor, so please don't ask me about your various sicknesses. I have studied a little bit about Tibetan medicine and have taken Tibetan medicine for years, so I can only explain something about the theory.

Tibetan medicine has a long history. There was a native tradition of medicine in Tibet. With the formation of the Tibetan empire in the 7th century of the modern era, the emperors invited doctors from India and China, as well as from the Persian and Roman areas of Central Asia. Later, toward the end of the 8th century, they invited more doctors from these regions. Also at that time, the Buddha's teachings on medicine were brought from India to Tibet. This coincided with the arrival of Padmasambhava and the Nyingma teachings.

At that time, there was a big debate about what sort of Buddhism and what sort of medicine would be adopted for Tibet. The Indian Buddhist systems won on both counts for reasons that we won't go into. There was a great Tibetan physician at that time who combined a few aspects of Chinese and Greek medicine, which had been in Central Asia, into the basic Indian Buddhist teachings on medicine. Just as many Buddhist texts were hidden at that time due of difficulties, so were these medical texts. They were rediscovered in the 12th century and were slightly reworked and modernized. It is from this revision that the present Tibetan medical system derives.

Tibetan medicine spread from Tibet to Mongolia, northern China, Siberia and many areas of Central Asia, going all the way over to the Caspian Sea. Tibetan medicine, as well as many other aspects of Tibetan culture, formed what would be analogous to Latin culture in Medieval Europe. Its influence spread all the way from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific, and from Siberia to the Himalayas. It was a major civilization. Let's look at the Tibetan medical system itself.

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