Home > Collections > Medicine > Education

Frances Garrett (Published December 2002; Revised July 2007)

Therapeutics in Tibetan Medicine

Traditionally in Tibetan medicine, diet and behavioral recommendations are initial therapies for many types of health conditions. Various medicinal substances are also prescribed. Although Tibetan medical texts present techniques for surgical intervention, surgery is generally recommended only as a last resort, and patients are generally referred outside the Tibetan medical systems for this type of treatment.

Learn more:
Various Four Tantras' chapters on therapeutics are translated in The Quintessence Tantras. Also see Health Through Balance, pgs. 131-187.

Diet

The Four Tantras dedicates three chapters to the importance of proper diet. Foods are accordingly classified according to properties and their effects on the body. According to Tibetan medicine, all phenomena, including whatever is eaten as food, is composed of the five natural elements. The basic elemental theory provides the basis for understanding the interactions between different food substances, the environment, and the human body. Dietary therapy involves prescribing foods that suitably augment, diminish, or balance the afflicting disturbance of the humors, physical constituents of excretory matters of the body.

Proper diet and digestion are fundamental to healthy physical and mental functioning, and thus one's diet determines one's state of health. The functioning of the digestive system involves interactions between the three humors, seven physical constituents, and three excretory matters.

Learn more:
The Four Tantras' chapters on diet are translated in The Quintessence Tantras, pgs. 110-124. Also see the traditional medical paintings and excellent accompanying essays on this topic in Tibetan Medical Paintings, pgs. 58-60; Health Through Balance, pgs. 154-178; and Tenzin Namdul, "Diet and Lifestyle in Harmony with the Seasons" in sMan-rTsis Journal 2:2 (2000), 72-78. On the digestive system, see Lobsang Rabgay, "Digestive System According to Tibetan Medicine" in Tibetan Medicine 3 (1981), pgs. 27-32.

Behavior

The Four Tantras classifies behavioral recommendations into regular, seasonal, and immediate. Regular behavioral recommendations consist of maintaining standards of body, speech, and mind that are beneficial both to the present life and the next life. Maintaining seasonal behavioral standards involve following seasonal guidelines for dress, sleep, and food. Immediate behavioral recommendations call for satisfying, not suppressing, natural urges like sneezing or urination.

Learn more:
The Four Tantras' chapters on behavior are translated in The Quintessence Tantras, pgs. 99-110. Also see the paintings and accompanying essays in Tibetan Medical Paintings , pg. 56; and see Health Through Balance, pgs. 137-154.

Pharmacology

Pharmacology in Tibetan medicine is linked to the dynamic energy functionalities outlined in the five elements theory and how certain medicinal substances contain these functionalities and interact with each other. Physicians prescribe medicinal preparations with attention to season and time of day. Thus different preparations may be prescribed for the patient's morning, afternoon, or evening consumption.

Learn more:
See the TMLR Tibetan Pharmacy page.

Other therapeutic techniques

There are other therapeutic techniques in Tibetan medicine. Gentler techniques include massage, hot and cold compresses, hydrotherapy, and medicinal steam baths. Harsher techniques include venesection/bloodletting, cupping, moxibustion, and golden-needle acupuncture. While surgery is included in traditional descriptions of therapeutic techniques, today it is not taught in Tibetan medical schools and almost never practiced by Tibetan physicians.

Learn more:
On bloodletting, moxibustion, and minor surgery, see Tibetan Medical Paintings , pgs. 152-164. Also see Elizabeth Finckh, "Practice of Tibetan Medicine: Notes on Moxibustion (me btsa')," in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Assn for Tibetan Studies, Narita 1989, Eds. Ihara Shoren and Yamaguchi Zuiho (1992), Volume 2, pgs. 443-450.