At such an epoch, it is perhaps not surprising that so-called alternative forms of medicine, that have existed long before the discovery of modern medicine, are becoming increasingly accepted in the western world.

History of Tibetan Medicine
Tibetan medicine one of the earliest forms of Eastern medicine, has existed since the 7th century. Introduced by the 30th King Srongtsen Gampo who was responsable for the construction of Lhasa as well as the founding of the Tibetan alphabet. From Tibet, knowledge spread to Mongolia and to China; contradictory of what the Chinese profess. Indeed the 'Golden Needle', (seen in Bauer's pictures) is the predecessor to Chinese acupuncture.

Men-Tsee-Khang: The Tibetan Medical & Astrological Institute
The Tibetan Medical & Astrological Institute in Dharamsala (Men-Tsee-Khang) is the centre of Manuel Bauer's reportage, which incorporates, a medical and astrological college, a clinic, a research and pharmaceutical dept and packing centre for the exportation of medicinal products, entirely made from natural substances. The predecessor to this college was the college of Astrology and Medicine, Lhasa, built by the previous Dalai Lama (the 13th), called sMan-rtsis-khan, destroyed by the Chinese and replaced by a television communications tower. (See Sinosation of Tibet © Manuel Bauer, caption 39).
The first school of Tibetan medicine being established by the 5th Dalai Lama at Ganden Monastery in Tibet.

Medical Training
The training of a Tibetan medical student will primarily last for seven years . Each year there is a new focus of study and training After seven years of intense theoretical training, there is a further three years of practical training when the students will learn the more complicat ed aspects of pulse and urine diagnosis and identification of diseases.

Medicinal Substances
In the Tibetan system of preparing or combining medicine, thousand and thousands of herbs, roots precious stones, minerals and jewels are used. The herbs must be collected from clean places such as in the hills and mountains as well in the right season and at the right time. Most types of digestion problems, liver ailments, arthritic rheumatism, thrombosis, eyesight problems and white and black cataracts can be cured solely through herbal medicines. For more serious cases this is not enough and mineral or jewellery ingredients are necessary. For epilepsy, the many different kinds of cancer, combinations of gems and herbs have to be used.



Medical Practice
Classically Tibetan medicine says that inspection, palpitation and interrogation, skillfully and competently carried out, will provide all the necessary information about ill health and disease.
In pulse diagnosis, a Tibetan doctor will use six fingers to diagnose all the innner organs of the patient. Seemingly simple, diagnosis is very complex: with 32 different pulses sending messages from all the organs and body systems, though only an experienced doctor can feel all 32. And even that's not enough since the pulses change with age, menstral cycle as well as with the seasons and moon phases.

The dissorders that afflict man today such as cancer, are not just physical but cosmo-psychical. With the theories of Tibetan medicine based on and derrived from Buddhist psychological and cosmology, it is time that modern medicine sat up and took serious note to a practice of medical science that has been around for over a thousand years.


Background information and further