patient and the balance of the humours are recommended, and this includes quantities of food, and when they are eaten.
Herbal Medicines
If dietary and behavioural changes are not sufficient to remedy the condition, herbs are prescribed. The Tibetan Materia Medica consists largely of medicinal herbs, as well as minerals and, to a lesser extent, animal substances. As in Ayurveda, medicinal substances are grouped according to their properties, their taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent), their potency (heavy/light, oily/rough, hot/cold and blunt/sharp) and the effect of these on the humours. Tibetan medicines are frequently composed of 20 or more different ingredients, and include one major group of ingredients and two minor ones aimed at supporting the major group and preventing unwanted side effects. Herbs that are used in the Tibetan tradition include amalaki, roses, calendula, nettles, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, garlic, rhodiola, gentian and liquorice. Medicines are considered to be offerings to the Medicine Buddha and other medicine deities and are prepared with spiritual rituals by traditional methods of drying, grinding, mixing and pressing the plants to make pills, powders or decoctions.
The annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s had a great impact on Tibetan medicine. During the Cultural Revolution in particular, practitioners suffered great persecution, and clinical practice, study and research largely censored by the repressive Chinese. Nevertheless, Tibetan medicine has survived almost intact. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama lives in exile in Dharamasala and has been a powerful influence in Tibetan medicine. In 1961 he founded the Men-Tsee-Khang (the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute – TMAI) which has a college of Tibetan medicine, a clinic, a pharmacy that produces and dispenses medicines, and carries out research and publication of medical and astrological texts. There are other schools and clinics in Tibet, India and Nepal and recently huge pharmaceutical factories have started making traditional Tibetan formulas in China.
HERBS COMMONLY USED IN TIBETAN MEDICINE
Allium sativum (see page 102)
Calendula officinalis (see page 132)
Cinnamomum zeylanicum (see page 142)
Coriandrum sativum (see page 148)
Elettaria cardamomum (see page 159)
Emblica officinalis (see page 161)
Gentiana lutea (see page 175)
Glycyrrhiza glabra (see page 178)
Myristica fragrans (see page 204)
Rhodiola rosea (see page 224)
Rosa spp (see page 225)
Urtica dioica (see page 257)
Zingiber officinale (see page 274)
Many herbs used in Tibetan medicine, for example garlic and ginger, are already part of our daily lives.
Ayurvedic Medicine
The name Ayurveda derives from two Sanskrit words: ayur meaning life, and veda meaning knowledge or science. Ayurveda is the knowledge or science of life. More than just a system of medicine, Ayurveda is a way of life encompassing science, religion and philosophy that enhances well being, increases longevity and ultimately enables self realisation. It aims to bring about a union of physical, emotional and spiritual health or swasthya, which is a prerequisite for attaining moksha or liberation.
The lotus flower, with its far reaching roots, symbolises the Ayurvedic approach to deep individual healing.
Ayurveda is a unique holistic system of healing based on the interaction of body, mind and spirit. It is thought to be the oldest health care system in the world with its roots going back over 5000 years into the Vedic Age. It evolved on the far reaches of the Himalayas from the deep wisdom of spiritually enlightened prophets or rishis. Their wisdom was transmitted orally from teacher to disciple and eventually set down in Sanskrit poetry known as the Vedas. These writings, dating approximately 1500 BC, distilled the prevailing historical, religious, philosophical and medical knowledge and form the basis of Indian culture. The most important of these texts are the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda. Ayurveda has survived largely as an oral tradition until the present day, one of its greatest values being its timelessness and its application to every facet of daily living, now, as it was all those centuries ago.
Ayurveda has had a strong influence on many systems of medicine, from ancient Greek medicine in the West, to traditional Chinese medicine in the East. The Chinese, Tibetan, and Islamic (Unani Tibb) systems of medicines are thought to have their roots in Ayurveda. The Buddha, who was born around 550 BC, was a follower of Ayurveda and the spread of Buddhism into Tibet during the following centuries was accompanied by increased practice of Ayurveda. The ancient civilisations were linked to one another by trade routes, campaigns and wars. Arab traders spread knowledge of Indian plants in their Materia Medicas and this knowledge was passed on to the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose practices were eventually to form the basis of European medicine.
The first Ayurvedic medical school was founded around 800 BCE by Punarvasu Atreya. He and his pupils recorded medical knowledge in treatises that would in turn influence Charaka, a scholar who lived and taught around 700 BC. His writings, the Charaka Samhita, describe 1500 plants, identifying 350 as valuable medicines. This major text is still considered the main authority today of Ayurveda and referred to constantly in both teaching and practice of Ayurveda. The second major work was the Susruta Samhita, written a century later, which forms the basis of modern surgery and is still consulted today. It describes the medicinal properties of 700 healing plants.
The Five Elements
According to Ayurveda, the origin of all aspects of existence is the field of pure intellect or consciousness, known as purusha, and this appeals to those influenced by the theories of modern quantum physics that locate the basis of the physical universe in a single unified field that directs and orchestrates the continuous flow of matter. Energy and matter are one. Ayurveda does not separate the external from the inner world. Everything that exists in the macrocosm has its counterpart in the microcosm of the inner universe of a human being.
Ayurvedic doctors use pulse diagnosis to assess a patient's constitution and their present state of health.
Cosmic energy manifests in the five elements that are the basis of all matter – ether, air, fire, water and earth. In the body ether is present in the spaces such as the mouth, the abdomen, the thorax, the capillaries and cells; movement of space is air, manifest in movements of, for example, muscles, the pulsations of the heart, peristalsis of the digestive tract and nervous impulses. Fire is present in the digestive system, governing enzyme systems and metabolism, as well as body temperature, vision and the light of the mind, intelligence. Water is present in secretions like the digestive juices, saliva, mucous membranes, plasma and cytoplasm. Earth is responsible for the solid structures holding the body together, bones, cartilage, muscles and tendons as well as skin, hair and nails.
