Medical Thangka

Tibetan medicine is a traditional system of medicine which has been practiced for over 2500 years and is still practiced today. It is based on the ancient Four Tantras: native Tibetan texts incorporating Indian, Chinese and Greco-Arab medical systems. As stated by the International Academy for Traditional Tibetan Medicine (IATTM) ?one of the unique features of Traditional Tibetan Medicine is that it contains a comprehensive philosophy, cosmology, and system of subtle anatomy with associated spiritual practices?. Traditional Tibetan medicine uses different kinds of ingredients such as plants, minerals and precious metals. However 95% of Tibetan medicine is based on herbs. The history of the Medicine Thangkas starts with Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653-1705) regent of Tibet after the passing of the 5th Dalai Lama and famous for overseeing the completion of the Potala Palace. Arranging the translation of Indian texts based on Ayurveda and inviting Tibetan physicians to pass on their oral traditions, Gyatso produced a new and revised edition of the Four Tantras, known as Blue Beryl, today considered the basis of the study of Tibetan medicine. During the draft of this important book Sangye Gyatso commissioned a remarkable collection of seventy-nine annotated medical and anatomical paintings that illustrate the chapters of the Four Tantras.