The first edition of the Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine, published in 1981, has remained one of the most popular and widely used publications on Tibetan Medicine available in English. In 1995, a second revised edition was published in response to an increasing interest in Tibetan Medicine and a greater demand for literature on the subject. The need for a third revised edition was again felt and in 1996, the Director of Men-Tsee-Khang appointed us to expand and revise the book. However, due to our other Institutional responsibilities, we could not begin work on the project until the summer of 1997. We are pleased to bring out this book, started initially during the Directorship of Mr. Tsering Tashi, and completed with the encouragement of our current Director, Mr. Pema Dadhul Arya. The support of both Directors has been invaluable. In this third Edition, as in the Second, alterations, additions and deletions have been made to material from the edition preceding it. The material in Part One has been divided into four distinct chapters, with the addition of an introductory section on the history of Tibetan Medicine. Where new information has been added from the rGyudbZhi or its commentary Vaidurya sNgon-po and the original text was too complicated or technical for the purposes of an introductory book such as this, we have attempted to simplify the material without sacrificing the essential points. In doing so, errors or omissions may have occurred, for which we take full responsibility. When it seemed useful, we have condensed material into tables. We have updated some photos from the previous edition and also have added a pronunciation guide to Tibetan medical terms. It is our sincere desire that all who read this book will benefit from it and experience good health. Dr. Lobsang Tsultrim Dr. Tenzin Dakpa

All of us want to be happy and avoid suffering. So why are many of us anxious, angry, depressed? We suffer from pain, hypertension, inflammation, indigestion, insomnia, and addictions. Yet, too often we make choices that sabotage us rather than reverse what’s wrong. Tibetan medicine, Tibet’s ancient, comprehensive science of healing, offers effective tools for transforming suffering into health and happiness. Tibetan medicine teaches that the purpose of life is to be happy, and that after our basic needs are met, happiness results primarily from our own thinking. When challenges arise, we can wallow in negativity and get sick - or even sicker - in mind and body. Or we can decide to create health and happiness. Making positive choices won’t solve every problem but will produce better results than poor or thoughtless decisions do. This unique book explains in everyday English how to use Tibetan medicine for self-care and as a complement to modern medicine. Tibetan medicine sheds light on the intricate relationship between mind and body. Each of us is born with a unique combination of energies called our constitution. Understanding our constitution empowers us to make conscious, informed decisions about our thoughts, diet, and behavior to keep our energies in balance. We learn to reduce stress, create health, prepare for death, and be happy.

Within a mere decade, hospital pharmacies throughout the Tibetan areas of the People’s Republic of China have been converted into pharmaceutical companies. Confronted with the logic of capital and profit, these companies now produce commodities for a nationwide market. While these developments are depicted as a big success in China, they have also been met with harsh criticism in Tibet. At stake is a fundamental (re-)manufacturing of Tibetan medicine as a system of knowledge and practice. Being important both to the agenda of the Party State’s policies on Tibet and to Tibetan self-understanding, the Tibetan medicine industry has become an arena in which different visions of Tibet’s future clash.

The fascinating Tibetan medical system has never been so clearly explained as in this collection of oustanding lectures presented at the University of Virginia in 1980. Tibetan medicine restores and maintains balance among the three humors of the body through a variety of treatments_diet and behaviour modification as well as the use of medicine and accessory theraphy. The basic system has been enhanced by the practical findings of Tibetan physicians who have used the system for more than a thousand years. Dr. Donden holistically considers factors of personality, season, age, climatic condition, diet, behaviour, and physical surroundings in addressing the means for restoring health. The great strength of tibetan medicine is that it is delicately responsive to patients, complete symptom pattern--no complaint being disregarded--and its wide variety of curative techniques are described in this book.

Only fifty years ago, Tibetan medicine, now seen in China as a vibrant aspect of Tibetan culture, was considered a feudal vestige to be eliminated through government-led social transformation. Medicine and Memory in Tibet examines medical revivalism on the geographic and sociopolitical margins both of China and of Tibet�s medical establishment in Lhasa, exploring the work of medical practitioners, or amchi, and of Medical Houses in the west-central region of Tsang. Due to difficult research access and the power of state institutions in the writing of history, the perspectives of more marginal amchi have been absent from most accounts of Tibetan medicine. Theresia Hofer breaks new ground both theoretically and ethnographically, in ways that would be impossible in today�s more restrictive political climate that severely limits access for researchers. She illuminates how medical practitioners safeguarded their professional heritage through great adversity and personal hardship.

"Healing Elements is a beautiful ethnography of the practices, products and epistemology of Tibetan Medicine. Through her rich and gifted storytelling of experiences spanning a decade, Craig weaves together a mosaic of the medical and therapeutic engagements of the troubled whole that is Tibetan Medicine today. Healing Elements shows us how this conversation itself constitutes a path toward healing." - Vincanne Adams, Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California, San Francisco.

A comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of Sowa Rigpa for both students of Tibetan Medicine and the general public. The first in a special series of texts co-published by SKY Press and Tibet House US Publications.

Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine is a collection of ten essays in which a team of international scholars describe and interpret Tibetan medical knowledge. With subjects ranging from the relationship between Tibetan and Greco-Arab conceptions of the bodily humors, to the rebranding of Tibetan precious pills for cross-cultural consumption in the People’s Republic of China, each chapter explores representations and transformations of medical concepts across different historical, cultural, and/or intellectual contexts. Taken together this volume offers new perspectives on both well-known Tibetan medical texts and previously unstudied sources, blazing new trails and expanding the scope of the academic study of Tibetan medicine. Contributors include: Henk W.A. Blezer, Yang Ga, Tony Chui, Katharina Sabernig, Tawni Tidwell, Tsering Samdrup, Carmen Simioli, William A. McGrath, Susannah Deane and Barbara Gerke

Tibetan medicine is a unique and holistic system of healing. It has been continuously practised for over a thousand years but has still take its place in the history of medicine as we know it in the West. This volume presents for the first time a comprehensive introduction to the arcane Tibetan art of healing. The author has provided a well-documented, original and detailed study of Tibetan psychiatry, the world's oldest system of medical psychiatry. Translated here--for the first time in English--are three fascinating chapters about mental illness from the rGyud-bzhi, the ancient and most important Tibetan medical work. Reproductions of the rare Tibetan texts are also included. Supplementing these translations are extensive explanations of Tibetan psychiatric theory and treatment drawn from the author's research and interviews with Tibetan refugee doctors in India and Nepal. Great care has been taken to identify over 90 pharmacological substances used in Tibetan psychiatric medicines, and these are listed in an appendix along with their English and Latin botanical names. Deeply researched and clearly written, this work will be of interest to both scholars and general readers in the fields of Buddhist studies, holistic healing, Oriental medicine, transpersonal psychology, ethnopsychiatry and medical anthropology.

Tibetan medicine is a rarified field with few publications in English; it is also one of the most comprehensive of alternative therapies, addressing body, mind, and spirit. Written for intermediate-level practitioners, Essentials of Tibetan Traditional Medicine brings this important healing tradition to Western practitioners. The book begins by summarizing the basics behind Tibetan medical theory and its methods of diagnosis. The second part of the book presents the core concepts of wind, bile, phlegm, dark phlegm, epidemic fever, heat, and cold, along with their corresponding nosologies, differential diagnoses, and treatments. The third section covers therapeutics, with an emphasis on medicinals—the mainstay of contemporary practice. A chapter on therapeutic strategies discusses unclear diagnosis and other challenging clinical situations. Other chapters explore the crucial components of lifestyle and diet. Each herb and animal product used in Tibetan medicine is profiled on its own page, with its Tibetan, common, and botanical names; its key properties and clinical uses; its known pharmacological properties; and a simple illustration. This useful handbook concludes with a description and indepth analysis of some 60 frequently used formulas.