The spirit of Tibetan medicine

The Fourfold Medical Tantras - a compilation of basic treaties and commentaries, pharmacopoeia, history of medicine, medical formulas, diagnostic techniques - was said to have been translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the eighth century.

It was lost, rediscovered in the 11th century and finally completed and adapted to local conditions in the 12th century.

Today, Professor Tsoro Tsenam Rinpoche is considered the most knowledgeable scholar of this text alive. But he says the text contains a lot more potential than even his understanding can provide.

'It contains a wealth of healing wisdom,' Tsoro Tsenam said of the ancient text that has become the bible of Tibetan medicine. 'Every character of text could represent a lot of different meanings.'

Tsoro Tsenam regards Tibetan medicine as one of four major medical traditions, along with Greek, Chinese herbal medicine and Indian ayurvedic medicine. Each of the four have interacted and influenced each other, he says, though Tibetan medicine absorbed and adapted mostly from the Chinese and ayurvedic traditions.

He respects Western medicine but believes Tibetan medicine contains a vast wealth of potential for treating conventional disease, but is still the most under-developed and least understood of the four traditions.