Tibetan Medicine
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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.
Tibetan mercury processing
The inheritor holds the complete documentation for processing mercury and other special drugs—the thread tying this region to the core Tibetan technique.
Ten internal methods
Ten internal methods alongside the external ones—their sequence and combinations mark this school off from other Tibetan branches.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine · Tibetan Medicine.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Under the influence of outside cultures, Gannan Tibetan medicine has been greatly impacted; large numbers of its classic ancient texts have been lost, Tibetan medical families lack successors, and the clinical experience of many elderly Tibetan physicians faces being lost, so that rescue and protection are urgently needed. Sonam Wangjie (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in December 1965, a native of Luqu County, Gansu Province. In 1985 he worked at the Gahai Township Health Centre of Luqu County, developing the clinical practice of Tibetan medicine. In 1994 he went to work at the Tibetan Medicine Hospital of Luqu County, where he remains to this day, treating patients with outstanding medical skill. In the interval he studied medicine for one year under the famous Tibetan physician Dangke of Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province. He devoted himself to the study and collection of ancient Tibetan medical texts and of folk and secret prescriptions, and holds complete materials on the preparation and processing methods of special Tibetan medicaments such as mercury. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan Medicine (Gannan Tibetan Medicine), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. He was named a Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Physician (Tibetan Medicine) of Gansu Province, fourth batch, by the Gansu Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Qiangbachilie 01-0220
- Nimaciren 01-0221
- Suolangqimei 01-0222
- Gawu 01-0223
- Duoji 01-0224
- Tangka Angwengjiangcuo 01-0225
- Gesangnima 01-0226
- Mima 03-1450
- Gesangciren 03-1451
- Lixianjia 03-1452
- Danzengpengcuo 03-1453
- Suolangdunzhu 03-1454
- Luosangduoji 03-1455
- Baimajiacuo 03-1456
- Eri 03-1457
- Gamacuoni 03-1458
- Sangjie 03-1459
- Nima 03-1460
- Zhandui 04-1947
- Mingzhu 05-2957
- Suonanwangjie 05-2958
- Nimacairang 05-2959
- Dansongzhaba
- Yujue
- Duojierenqing
- Cirenluobu
- Kanzhaojia
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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