The History of Tibetan Medicine

Tibetan Medicine is a very old Traditional Medical system. The oldest form dates from the pre-buddhistic area of the Bon-tradition. The animistic healing practice of the Bon culture had been taught centuries before by Shenrab Miwo (1063 BC). The texts contained healing methods, dietary recommendations and a simple pharmaceutical reference book.

In the second half of the 7th century the Tibetan King Song Tsen Gampo undertook to reform and further develop the shamanistic practices and the naturopathy of the Bonpas. Following the recommendation of his two wives, the Chinese Princess Wengeng and the Nepalese Princess Bhrikuti, the Royal Court promoted Buddhism in Tibet and also invited physicians from India, China, Iran, Nepal and Kashmir to the court. The Tibetan script was improved and various medical texts were translated into Tibetan. 

King Tri Song Detsen (755 bis 797) invited physicians from the bordering countries to a medical conference. As a synthesis of these various medical systems the Tibetan physician, Yuthok Yonten Gonpo, composed a first version of the main medical textbook, called “Gyüshi”.

In the 11th century, the Tibetan physician Yuthog Yonten Gonpo the Younger composed on the basis of this first version and other medical texts the “Gyüshi” which is still in use today and forms the main study compendium of Tibetan Medicine. Tibetan medicine classifies 84’000 illnesses and describes 2293 medicines.

The Traditional Tibetan Medicine entered a new stage of development in the 17th century: His Holiness, the 5th Dalai Lama, began with the construction of the Potala Palace and at the same time he also founded the Chakpori Medical College in Lhasa. His Regent, Sangye Gyamtso, revised the Gyüshi and wrote the famous treatise Blue Beryl. Moreover, to provide illustrations for the texts, he commissioned 79 paintings, the so called “Medicine Thangkas”  (see image). The Gyüshi, the Blue Beryl Treatise and the 79 Thangkas are to this day the basis of the education of Tibetan physicians.

The second Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute,  Men- Tsee- Khang, was founded by His Holiness, the 13th Dalai Lama in 1916. This institute was open for monks as well as for laypersons. The education of the Tibetan physicians was focussed strongly on the practical side, i.e. the treatment of patients.

Tibetan Medicine also spread to Mongolia, China, the Buddhist regions of Russia (e.g. Burjatia in Siberia), to Central Asia, to Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Ladakh. In the 19th century, the reputation of the effectiveness of Tibetan Medicine also reached the court of the czar in St. Petersburg and soon Tibetan physicians, originally coming from Burjatia, established a clinic for Tibetan Medicine in St. Petersburg.