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. Arula is the Tibetan phonetic rendering of 'hezi' (Terminalia chebula, myrobalan). The Explanation of Zhalaga says: 'A is the foremost of all syllables and can cure the diseases produced by rLung (Long), mKhris pa (Tripa), and Bad kan (Beken); Ru possesses flesh, bone, and skin and can cure the diseases of the three humours; La is like the horn of an elephant or rhinoceros and can cure the diseases of the seven vital energies. Therefore it is called Arula.' Legend has it that on the Medicine King Mountain there are five kinds of ripe myrobalan, endowed with six tastes, eight potencies, three post-digestion tastes, and seventeen efficacies; the medicinal flavour is fragrant, and smelling it gladdens and delights the heart; wherever the scent of the medicine reaches, none of the 404 diseases can occur. Arula's corresponding applications to the human body are extensive: its root can treat diseases of the bones, its stem diseases of the skin and flesh, its branches diseases of the four limbs, its leaves diseases of the meridians and collaterals, its bark diseases of the skin, and its flowers diseases of the five sense organs.
The name Arula explained
A classical gloss explains each syllable of the Tibetan name of chebul myrobalan, linking the three to the three factors and to the seven vital winds.
Harvesting the fruit
The fruit of a tree in the Combretaceae family grows in forest between 800 and 1800 metres, and when it is gathered is the first gate of its virtue.
Cleaning and de-seeding
The fruit is cleaned and its kernel separated from its flesh, each used for different ends—a basic skill of this processing discipline.
Drying and storage
After processing, storage matters as much as the processing itself; inheritors travel to the growing grounds every year to handle this stage.
Saita processing
A related line of Tibetan drug processing, preserved alongside chebul preparation and transmitted to more than fifty practitioners.
Root, stem, flower and bark used apart
Different parts answer to different complaints—bone, skin, limbs, channels, surface disease and the organs of the face—showcasing how finely Tibetan medicine divides a drug's actions.
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. 'Arula' is the fruit of the myrobalan-family plants Terminalia chebula or Terminalia chebula var. tomentosa. It grows in forests at elevations between 800 and 1,800 metres, is distributed mainly in Guangxi and Yunnan of China, and is also found in India, Nepal, Vietnam, and other countries of Southeast Asia; it has been a raw material in common use in Tibetan medicine for hundreds of years. Arula is the most widely applied and most representative of Tibetan medicinal materials, with obvious specificity, distinct inclusiveness, and notable regional character.
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 modern medicine, people's understanding of Tibetan medicine is very insufficient, which has affected its transmission; protection by the state is urgently needed. Eri (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in June 1963, a native of Gangcha County, Qinghai Province. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan Medicine (Processing Technique of Arula), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. At the age of nineteen he graduated from the Tibetan medicine class of the Health School of Huangnan Prefecture and stayed on to teach there. He has successively worked at the Haixi Mongolian-Tibetan Hospital, the Qinghai Hospital of Tibetan Medicine, and Qinghai Jinhe Tibetan Medicine Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; every year he goes deep into the producing areas of Tibetan medicinal materials to process Tibetan medicine, and he is chief expert of the national-level key specialty, the department of gastroenterology, of the Qinghai Hospital of Tibetan Medicine. His principal papers include 'A Brief Account of Tibetan Medicine's Understanding of Diet and Health,' 'An Overview of the Tibetan Medical Treatment of Tripa Disease,' and 'Tibetan Medicine's Understanding of Chronic Atrophic Gastritis.' He persistingly carries out training in the field identification of medicinal materials and instruction in the techniques of medicine processing, further improving his students' ability to identify Tibetan medicinal materials and to process them. Sangye (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in July 1943, a native of Wulan County, Qinghai Province. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan Medicine (Saitai Processing Technique of the Seventy-Flavor Pearl Pill), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. Chief physician, and an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council. He has transmitted the production techniques of more than one hundred kinds of Tibetan medicine and has trained more than fifty inheritors of the Tibetan medicine saitai processing technique. He has been named an instructor for the academic-experience inheritance work of national elderly experts of traditional Chinese medicine, batches three through five, by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and has received such titles as National Famous Physician of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Advanced Worker of the National Health System. He has completed a number of national-level scientific research projects, including 'Identification of Chaotic Varieties in Tibetan Medicine'; he participated in compiling such works as the Compendium of Chinese Medicinal Herbs of Qinghai Province and Medicinal Animals of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; and his work 'Tibetan Moxibustion Therapy and Its Clinical Application' won a provincial science and technology achievement award.
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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