Rising Popularity of Tibetan Medicine

Tibetan medicine is one of the traditional forms of medicine that is seeing a major resurgence in terms of popularity. This form of medicine was originally practiced by the Tibetans in Lhasa. Tibetan medicine is based on Tibetan Buddhist cosmology in which the five cosmic energies of space, air, fire, water and earth are responsible for life itself. Any imbalance of these energies in the human body manifests itself in the form of an ailment. In Tibetan medicine, a major emphasis is placed on mental wellbeing.

Any stress on the mind is thought to directly affect the body. This concept of treating the mind and body as a whole is gradually gaining acceptance even among popular allopathic medicine.

The centre of Tibetan medicine is presently at Dharamsala in India, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama, presently resides. A number of experts in Tibetan medicine reside here as well and there are also many schools to train young doctors in the science of this ancient philosophy. In addition to diagnosing and treating patients, students are also taught how to identify the various herbs that are used in effecting a cure. The fundamental concepts of Tibetan medicine are described in a journal that is published by the Tibetan Medical and Astra Institute.

Many clinics have sprung up that offer medical treatment based on this ancient practice. Within the course of a few hours, the ailment is diagnosed and a course of treatment is prescribed. Diagnosis is mainly made by studying the pulse and the morning urine sample.

The efficacy of Tibetan medicine was further verified when the Chief Physician to the Dalai Lama, Amachis Tenzin Choedrag paid a visit to the National Institute of Immunology. Here he diagnosed the ailments of the various patients on the basis of their pulse and urine sample alone. Amazingly, most of the diagnoses that he made were spot on, in spite of the fact that he did not study the patients’ medical history.

Submitted on January 16, 2014