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.
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. Tibetan medicine processing is a pharmaceutical technique adopted in accordance with the theory of Tibetan medicine and pattern-based treatment, the needs of medication, the inherent properties of the medicaments themselves, and the differing requirements of compounding and preparation. Tibetan medicine processing is a distinctive traditional pharmaceutical technique for preparing Tibetan medicine decoction pieces on the basis of Tibetan medical theory. This technique peculiar to Tibet has greatly raised the efficiency with which Tibetan medicinal materials are utilized. The great majority of Tibetan medicinal materials cannot be used raw and must be processed before they can be applied clinically. Medicinal materials are processed for four ends: first, to remove impurities and non-medicinal parts; second, to eliminate or reduce the toxicity, harsh properties, or side effects of a medicament; third, to alter the properties of a medicament so that it suits clinical needs; and fourth, to facilitate preparation and storage. Tibetan medicine processing comprises three major process steps — cleaning, cutting, and heat processing — and decoction pieces of different specifications have different processing techniques. Some pieces must undergo high-temperature treatment such as steaming, stir-frying, or calcining; others must also have special adjuvants such as wine, vinegar, salt, milk, or medicinal juices added before high-temperature treatment. In the end each specification of decoction piece is made to reach the prescribed quality standards of purity, thickness, safety, and efficacy. The techniques of Tibetan medicine processing contain unique means of enhancing efficacy and reducing toxicity; they are used not only in Tibetan medicine decoctions but also form the technical basis for the production of prepared Tibetan medicines.
Archival Record of Process Steps
Tibetan medicine processing comprises three major process steps — cleaning, cutting, and heat processing — and decoction pieces of different specifications have different processing techniques. Some pieces must undergo high-temperature treatment such as steaming, stir-frying, or calcining; others must also have special adjuvants such as wine, vinegar, salt, milk, or medicinal juices added before high-temperature treatment. In the end each specification of decoction piece is made to reach the prescribed quality standards of purity, thickness, safety, and efficacy.
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.
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
Rescuing and protecting this traditional method of pharmaceutical processing is of great significance. Dan Zengpengcuo (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in May 1938, a native of Namling County, Tibet Autonomous Region. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan Medicine (Tibetan Medicine Processing Techniques), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. From 1959 to 1962 he studied Tibetan medicine under his mentor Qinrao Norbu; from 1962 to 1980 he worked in the dispensing room of the Hospital of Tibetan Medicine of the Tibet Autonomous Region; from 1981 to 1992 he worked in the internal medicine department of the Tibetan Pharmaceutical Factory of the autonomous region. He has been engaged in pharmaceutical work for fifty years; he is skilled in all kinds of Tibetan medicine processing and has his own distinctive insights into the production environments and harvest seasons of medicinal materials and into the patterns of drug processing. As an elder pharmacist of the Mentseekang, he is thoroughly versed in both the theory and the practice of Tibetan medicine processing, and took part in many production and research undertakings of the Mentseekang Tibetan medicine. On the basis of summarizing the processing techniques of his predecessors and combining them with his own work experience, he established a set of norms for Tibetan medicine processing, the methods listed being chiefly steaming, boiling, stir-frying, roasting, calcining, steeping, and elutriation, thus providing valuable experience for the processing of medicaments in clinical use. Suolang Dunzhu (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan Medicine (Tibetan Medicine Processing Techniques), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. In 2000 he published the monograph Key Formulas for Compounding Tibetan Medicines, and in 2002 he began writing An Introduction to the Study of Tibetan Medicine Processing. From 2002 he took charge of the compilation and organization of the project A Compendium of Chinese Tibetan Prescriptions, approved by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine; he compiled the Practical Handbook of Commonly Used Prepared Tibetan Medicines in Tibetan and Chinese, and successively published more than ten papers, including 'A Brief Discussion of Chemistry in Ancient Tibetan Medicine,' 'The Modernization Strategy for Tibetan Medicine and Some Reflections on Its Research and Development,' and 'An Overview of Adverse Reactions of Tibetan Medicines.' Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in June 1970, died in December 2015, a native of Shannan City, Tibet Autonomous Region. In 2007 he received the 10th China Youth Science and Technology Award, presented by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Personnel, and the China Association for Science and Technology.
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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