Tibetan Medicine Illustrated in Original Texts Presented and translated by % the YEN. 1 i*i:/ iiiixt /: invi)/w in Tibetan Medicine Thi 8 One R7PR-ZWN-XA Tibetan Medicine illustrated in original texts presented and translated by the Ven. Rechung Rinpoche Jampal Kunzang UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles Copyrighted material UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles, California ISBN: 0-520-03048-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-85513 © The Wellcome Trust, 1973 California Paperback Edition, 1976 This work is also published in the United Kingdom by the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine Printed in the United States of America Contents Preface vii Introduction 3 History of Tibetan Medicine 8 Tibetan Medicine (from the Second and Fourth Books of the rGyud-bzhi) 29 Bibliography of European Works on Tibetan Medicine 98 Illustrations 104 The Life of the Great Physician-Saint gYu-thog the Elder 141 Glossary 328 Index of Medical Topics 331 Copyrighted m aterial Preface The chief part of this book is a translation of the biography of the Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po, the famous Court Physician of King Khri- sron-lde-btsan who lived during the eighth century a.d. The Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po visited India three times. He met and had discussions with many learned Pandits, and thus widened his knowledge of Buddhism and especially of medicine. On his return to Tibet he spread medical science throughout the country and shared his knowledge with many. For the preservation of our Tibetan culture I had the great desire to translate books on Tibetan Medicine, as well as to translate the Biography of the Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po, and thus approached Dr. F. N. L. Poynter, Director of the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, with the idea. Dr. Poynter very kindly took a keen interest in my suggestion and placed it before the Wellcome Trustees. The Trustees most generously accepted my request and kindly made it possible for me to carry on my work by awarding me a Fellowship to start my research work. The first block print of the Biography of the Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po was made by Dar-mo sMan-pa bLo-bzah Chhos-grags who was the Court Physician of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Dar-mo sMan-pa acquired the manuscript of the Biography of the Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po from a descendant of the latter, whose name was Lhun-grub bKra-shis. Having corrected the manuscript, Dar-mo sMan-pa had the first block prints made during the seventeenth century. Until the Communist Chinese occupied Tibet the blocks were preserved at the Lhasa Zhol par-khang (printing house). This is the text used for the present translation (India Office Library Lhasa J 12). It is printed on both sides of 149 leaves, each 51.5 by 10 cm or 21.35 by 4.15 inches, with six lines on each side. A second print was later made in sDe-dge in the district of Kham. The date is unknown. In the Introduction I have included the following: (a) The History of Tibetan Medicine from its origin up to modern times, which has not been written in English before. (b) A brief account of the Commentary on the bShad-rgyud, written by sDe-srid Sans-rgyas rGya-mTs'o, which is called Lapislazuli Rosary. vii vm PREFACE (c) A brief account of the two important chapters from the Phyi-rgyud; i.e. the examination of the pulse and the urine, forming the basis of Tibetan medicine and medical practice. (d) A series of Anatomy diagrams. First and foremost I owe my deepest gratitude to the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine for enabling me to achieve my wish to carry out and complete this work. The Wellcome Institute has contributed a great deal towards the preservation of Tibetan culture, since much has been lost since the occupation by the Communist Chinese of Tibet. My greatest thanks go to Miss Marianne Winder, Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the Wellcome Institute, for her unfailing assistance and help throughout my work of translation. Miss Winder, a scholar, has knowledge of several languages including Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan. I was very fortunate to have had her assistance, and it was indeed a pleasure to work with her. My gratitude goes to the two Tibetan doctors, Dr. hjam-dbyans Legs-pa'i bLo-gros from Ladakh and Dr. hjam-dbyans Sen-ge from sDe-dge in Kham, whom I consulted in order to clarify my doubts and difficulties during the translation of the Commentary to the bShad-rgyud and the Phyi-rgyud. I thank Rai Bhadur Densapa, a learned Buddhist scholar, for giving me the loan of his manuscripts from his vast collection of rare manuscripts for reference during my work. I should also like to thank Rhenock Kazi Tse Ten Tashi, Sikkim, who has assisted me greatly in identifying the botanical names. I thank the India Office Library, London, for lending the Wellcome Institute the block print of the Biography of the Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po. Last but not least I must thank Yapshi Pheunkhang Sey Gompo Tsering for his help and assistance in the collection of materials. Rechung Rinpoche Jampal Kunzang PART I Copyrighted material Introduction by MARIANNE WINDER The biography of the great physician-saint gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po is the first complete Tibetan medical work ever to be translated into a European language. The only other extant translations are parts of the rGyud-bzhi (Four Treatises) into Russian and five chapters out of 120 of Vagbhata's work into English. Both these are originally Sanskrit works while gYu-thog's Biography is an original Tibetan work. It shows the poetic and imaginative features characteristic of Tibetan literature. The Sanskrit original of the rGyud-bzhi was probably written about a.d. 400 but it was lost and only survives in Tibetan and Mongolian transla- tions. The Mongolian translation was derived from the Tibetan. The trans- lators into Tibetan were Vairochana and Zla-ba mNon-dgah* in the eighth century a.d. The translation into Russian of the First Treatise pub- lished by Dambo Ulyanov in 1901 is stated by Korvin-Krasinski (see Biblio- graphy) to be unintelligible. The translation of abridgments of the First and Second Treatises into Russian by A. Pozdne'ev was done from the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit, and was published in 1908. Klaus Vogel's edition of five chapters of Vagbhata's Ashtdngahrdayasamhitd in Sanskrit and Tibetan and translation into English was published by the Deutsche Morgenldndische Gesellschaft in 1965. The History of Tibetan Medicine in the present volume has been culled from Tibetan sources and, while myth and legend is blended with it, as in western mediaeval history, the dates are precise as they are always related to the reigns of kings whose dates are known. This is very different from Indian medical history where the dates assumed by different historians vary by hundreds and even thousands of years. Furthermore, Tibet having been cut off from much of the rest of the world effectivelv for centuries, an uninter- rupted tradition in medicine has been preserved, and it is fortunate indeed * Skt. Candrabhinandana. 3 Copy righ lad material 4 TIBETAN MEDICINE that the Venerable Rechung Rinpoche, himself the Incarnation of Rech- ungpa who told the story of the great Yogi Milarepa (a.d. i 140-1223), is able to pass it on to the West. Racially the Tibetans resemble their Chinese and Burmese, and of course also Nepalese, Bhutanese, Sikkimese and Assamese neighbours but amongst themselves they vary considerably in shape of head, stature, build and so on. This is not surprising if one realizes that a population of three million people was scattered over 700,000 square miles divided by huge mountain ranges. The earliest inhabitants we know of probably practised the shamanism prevalent in the whole of Northern Asia. The Tibetan form of this was called Bon religion. The small pockets of this preserved here and there up to the time of the Communist invasion were strongly influenced by Buddhism and are not likely to reflect much of the original practices. Conversely, Tibetan Buddhism has been influenced by the Bon substrate. In the seventh century a.d. Buddhism was introduced into Tibet, and has had a tremendous influence on the population and its way of life ever since. For most of the time one-fourth of the male population have been monks. At the head of the government there have been successively fourteen Dalai Lamas, spiritual rulers, assisted by wordly and monastic government officials. Most of the districts and villages were governed by at least one monastic authority. The laity was devout and all its life was centred round its religion. Religious mantras like Om Mani Padme Hum could be seen chalked on the mountain sides. Stone heaps, prayer flags and chortens dotted the countryside. A mantra is an invocation to a deity. The language used for invocations is Sanskrit and not Tibetan. Om Mani Padme Hum is the mantra directed to Avalokitesvara, the divine protector of Tibet. A chorten is a bell-shaped monument built over the relics of a Saint. Thus the history of medicine in Tibet is closely connected with the history of Buddhism. This was introduced mainly from India where it had flourished from its inception in the sixth century B.C. onwards. The Buddha Gautama Siddhartha, its founder, had collected round him the first community of monks.