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. The Seventy-Flavor Pearl Pill was formulated in the 8th century CE and first recorded in the great Tibetan medical work, the Four Medical Tantras.
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. This medicament is prepared from natural, precious, and rare Tibetan medicinal materials grown in the special ecological environment of the 'roof of the world,' in accordance with the principles of Tibetan medicine and strictly following the preparation methods of the traditional craft. Its selection of materials is of the highest grade, its processing distinctive, its workmanship refined, its functions broad, and its side effects small; the gathering of herbs, the processing, and the compounding all follow ancient methods, so that its remarkable curative effect is guaranteed. More than a thousand years of clinical practice have proven that the Seventy-Flavor Pearl Pill has the effects of calming the mind and spirit, tranquilizing, freeing the meridians and activating the collaterals, harmonizing qi and blood, and awakening the brain and opening the orifices. Its uses are extensive, and even healthy people who take it gain the functions of tonic nourishment, physical fitness, and the strengthening of the body's immunity. In Tibetan clinical medicine the Seventy-Flavor Pearl Pill plays a relatively important role in the treatment of such acute and serious conditions as stroke, paralysis, hemiplegia, epilepsy, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral concussion, heart disease, and hypertension.
Gathering the herbs
Every stage from gathering to dispensing follows the old usage: when to climb, which part to take, how to dry—half the virtue of a drug lies in the gathering.
Particular processing
Mineral, animal and plant materials each demand their own processing; detoxification, calcination and grinding decide the quality of the finished pill.
The formula
Formulated in the eighth century and recorded in the Four Tantras, the composition works through the balance of wind, bile and phlegm, with a thousand years of clinical use behind it.
Compounding the pill
Material, processing and workmanship—the last stage decides whether the pill will break down once swallowed.
Reworking the dosage forms
Trained in modern pharmacy, the inheritor developed cough syrup, anti-inflammatory injections and other preparations, carrying traditional drugs into contemporary dosage forms.
Use in acute and critical illness
Prescribed for stroke, paralysis, epilepsy, cerebral haemorrhage, concussion, cardiac disease and hypertension, and used more broadly as a tonic where there is no illness.
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
Under the impact of modern medicine, the processing methods of the Seventy-Flavor Pearl Pill and the related clinical experience all face a crisis of transmission of varying degree and urgently require rescue and protection. Lobsang Dorje (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in September 1956, a native of Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan Medicine (Compounding Technique of the Seventy-Flavor Pearl Pill), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. In 1979 he went to the Lhasa People's Hospital for advanced study, learning Chinese and Western pharmaceutical preparations; under a master he developed and produced new preparations such as Suluoxi Cough Syrup, Bangzijuni Anti-inflammatory and Analgesic Injection, Musk Injection, and Sankezhen Injection, improving traditional Tibetan medicine toward modern dosage forms. In 1985 he was awarded the silver medal of Outstanding Sons and Daughters of the Frontier by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.
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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