Diversity in Unity: The Changing Forms of Tibetan Medicine

Abstract

The article presents one Tibetan doctor's perceptions of practicing Tibetan medicine in various different national contexts. In each context we find a localized form of Tibetan medicine that in various ways is subject to the transformative forces of modernity and scientization. His story catalogues the historical changes that have occurred in Tibetan medicine in last forty years from the perspective of a medical practitioner who has experienced them directly. These changes have presented strong challenges to its theoretical and practical basis and to the social organization of the tradition. The article assesses the extent to which Tibetan medicine can still be said to be a unified field of knowledge and practice.

Keywords:

• Tibetan medicine
• science studies
• modernity
• religion
• Tibetan Buddhism

Notes

1 Tibetan words have been written phonetically with transliteration in brackets on their first occurrence, following the Wylie system (Wylie 1959).

2 The Mentsikhang (Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute) in Lhasa was established in 1916 by the thirteenth Dalai Lama in his attempts to implement modernizing reforms in Tibet (Goldstein 1989; Adams 2002; Janes 1995). The institute was reetablished in the exile community in Dharamsala, India, in 1961, and refers to itself by the English spelling Men-Tsee-Khang.

3 The principal text of Tibetan medicine, the Gyüshi (“the fourfold tantra”), consists of four volumes, each dealing with different aspects of Tibetan medical knowledge and practice.

4 Tibet's first medical school, established in 1696, by Desi Sangye Gyatso (Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho), the regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama. It was destroyed by the Chinese in 1959.

5 Rinchen rilbu, “precious pills,” are medicinal compounds that include the detoxified forms of minerals and metals, the most notable of which is mercury.

6 Sbod sman slob chen, founded in 1989 by Jampa Thinley.

7 Khenrab Norbu was the director of the Lhasa Mentsikhang from its founding in 1916 until his death in 1962.

8 Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan educator and former political prisoner, writes in his autobiography that in premodern Tibet, literacy and education were largely measured by one's calligraphic skills. Good handwriting was an essential requirement to gain higher government positions (Goldstein, Siebenschuh, and Tsering 1997: 32).

9 According to Craig Janes (1995: 25), the university-level course in Tibetan medicine consists of 4,120 hours of formal lectures over four years; 1,656 hours (40 percent) of these are devoted to “political study,” physical education, and language. Before commencing the fifth year, on medical practice, the students study some biomedical knowledge on anatomy, diagnosis, and emergency medicine; this information was gathered between 1988 and 1993. See also Bassini this issue.

10 A discussion of the factory and the Arura Medical Group can be found in Adams, Dongzhu, and Phuoc 2010.

11 The third volume, known as the Instruction Tantra (man ngag rgyud), is by far the biggest volume; it lists information on Tibetan nosology.

12 After years of campaigning by traditional Tibetan medical practitioners (amchi) in Ladakh, the Indian government passed a bill in May 2010 that provides for inclusion of Sowa Rigpa as an Indian system of medicine. The full significance of this for Tibetan medical knowledge and practice in India remains to be seen (Kloos 2010; Smanla and Millard this issue).

13 Removing the word Tibet has clear strategic advantages in getting the Indian government to accept and support the system as an Indian system of medicine. The term that has finally been agreed on is the Tibetan term Sowa Rigpa (“art of healing”). The politics involved in this transition are discussed in detail in Pordié 2008.

14 Section 12(2) of the Act refers to license exemptions for herbal medicines that are sold over the counter. Since the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive came into force in April 2011, all over-the-counter herbals are now required to go through the lengthy and costly process of registration.

15 Millard (2008) presents a detailed discussion of medicine regulations and statutory regulation and how these have affected Tibetan medicine in the United Kingdom.

16 The eighth modules for Western, Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Tibetan “herbal medicine” traditions can be found on the website of the European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (http://ehtpa.eu/standards/curriculum/index.html). The eighth module for Tibetan medicine was compiled by people associated with the Tara Trust. It was also through the initiative of Tara Trust that the British Association of Tradition Tibetan Medicine was established in 2002, of which Lobsang is a founder member.

17 The relationship between Tibetan medicine science and religion is discussed in detail in Adams, Schrempf, and Craig 2010.

18 A householder priest who is a specialist in tantric ritual.