Suonanwangjie

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1981 he entered the Tibetan medicine class of the Gannan Health School, studying under the renowned physicians Jamyang Gyatso and Sherab Gyatso of Labrang Monastery. He later worked at the Langmusi Tibetan Hospital, studying under the renowned physician Genga. In 1989 he entered the undergraduate Tibetan medicine program of the Tibet Tibetan Medical College, studying under Professor Qiangba Chilai and the renowned physician Cainammu, and obtained a bachelor's degree in Tibetan medicine. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tibetan Medicine in Luqu, Gansu: Because the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is vast in extent, with high mountains and swift waters, the ethnic and regional characteristics of Tibetan medical culture are relatively pronounced, and the diagnostics, medical techniques, and medicaments of Tibetan medicine often differ by region and by school. In recent decades, with the development of the Tibetan medical enterprise and the wide conduct of academic exchange, the inheritance and advancement of Tibetan medicine have achieved results that have attracted worldwide attention. Gannan has a vast territory and a rich and varied natural environment, and 60 per cent of the raw materials for pharmaceutical production are produced within its borders. Its classic work, the Four Medical Tantras, was completed in the second half of the 8th century CE during the Tubo (Tibetan Empire) period, and was written by the famous Tibetan physician Yutuo Yundan Gongbu. In the 7th century CE, Tibetan medicine spread into the Gannan region.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Tibetan ethnicity, born in December 1965 in Luqu County, Gansu Province. In 1985 he worked at the Gahai Township Health Center in Luqu County, carrying out clinical practice in Tibetan medicine. In 1994 he went to the Luqu County Tibetan Hospital, where he has worked ever since, treating patients with outstanding medical skill. During this period he followed the renowned Tibetan physician Dan Ke of Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, as a student for one year. He devotes himself to studying and collecting ancient Tibetan medical texts and folk and secret formulas, and holds the complete documentation on the processing of special Tibetan medicines such as mercury. Within the documented technical tradition of Tibetan Medicine in Luqu, Gansu: Tibetan medicine is an important component of China's traditional medicine and an important representative of the country's ethnic-minority medicines. Tibetan medicine has a long history; it is the medical experience accumulated by the Tibetan people in the special environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Tibetan medicine is combined with Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation and constitutes a vast and complex medical system. Tibetan medicine takes as its theoretical basis the five-element theory of water, fire, earth, wind, and void and the three-humour theory of rLung (Long), mKhris pa (Tripa), and Bad kan (Beken); it takes as its basic medicaments the plants, animals, minerals, and part of the 'southern medicines' of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; it adopts modes of practice suited to the plateau environment and to nomadic life; and it has unique curative effects on the common, frequently occurring, and endemic diseases of the oxygen-poor plateau environment. Its health-preserving culture is also receiving ever more attention from the medical world. Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture lies at the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at an average elevation of more than 3,000 metres. Because its geographical environment is special and its sunshine hours long, the active constituents of Gannan's medicinal materials are very high. Gannan Tibetan medicine is produced through timely collection, proper drying, the distinction of new stock from old, processing to remove toxins, and special preparation techniques; its medicinal properties are mild, its combinations well matched, and its curative effects are exceptionally notable. The treatment methods of Gannan Tibetan medicine are relatively distinctive, falling chiefly into two categories: internal administration (ten kinds) and external therapy. External therapies comprise gentle treatment (fumigation therapy, medicinal bathing, and rubbing application — three kinds), coarse treatment (abdominal bloodletting, fire cauterization, and stick pricking — three kinds), and fierce treatment (cutting, severing, pulling, and removal — four kinds). Judging from historical records and existing instrument atlases, the technique once reached a level capable of performing craniotomy. Gannan Tibetan medicine is a unique creation of Tibetan culture; centred on the Gannan Tibetan medicine knowledge system, it is interlinked with such cultural categories as religion, philosophy, astronomy, phenology, and folk custom, and together they constitute the Tibetan people's views of disease, society, nature, and life. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Gentle methods: fumigation, bathing, rubbing": The mildest tier of external treatment, applied within the patient's tolerance and suited to the frail and the slowly worsening. "Rough methods: bloodletting, fire, striking": The stronger tier—bloodletting at the vessel, fire cauterization and striking with an implement, each with its own precise demands. "Ferocious methods: cutting, severing, drawing out, clearing": The most drastic tier, surgical in character; historical records and surviving instrument plates show the practice once reached a level of cranial surgery. "Gathering, detoxifying and processing": Herbs are gathered in season, dried, sorted by age, detoxified and specially processed; about sixty per cent of the state's raw material is gathered within its borders.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Tibetan Medicine (Gannan Tibetan Medicine), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He was recognized by the Gansu Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission as a renowned Chinese medicine physician in its fourth batch of renowned TCM physicians of Gansu Province, in the Tibetan medicine category.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Suonanwangjie · National Representative Bearer Archive