Thangka Eight.jpg [3/7] Title: Metaphors of Body Structure - Thangka Eight Source: Thangkas 008.jpg Caption: This thangka is designed to help a layperson understand the fundamentals of the human body through the use of metaphor. The top portion of the painting is an extended metaphor relating a human body, positioned cross-legged with the arms rested at the sides, to a palace. The illustrations in the top left compare the hip bones to the walls of the palace, and the spine to a stack of gold coins. This analogy continues comparing bodily organs to the different components of a royal household. The second half of this thangka explains typical measurements for normal adults. Since there was no standard measuring system at the time when the books on Tibetan medicine were written, single and double handfuls are used. These drawings depict the correct amounts of rlung (being equal to the volume of a bladder), mkhris-pa (equal to the volume of a scrotum) and bad-kan (three cupped handfuls) within a healthy body. There are a few deviations of interest in this particular painting, as opposed to other sets of thangkas. The depiction of body form in the second panel is exaggeratedly female. The depiction of the bladder (end of 5th row) also varies significantly. Here it is presented round, and white, resembling an onion, while in other sets, it is brown, curved, and does not include the tube at the bottom. Overall, this particular medical thangka seems to vary to a much greater extent than the other paintings. Sources and Further Reading Averdon: pg 80 Dorje & Meyer: pg 27 & 183