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Tibetan Style of Medicine
"In this age made totally dark By the five great degenerations, The sentient being constantaly tossed. In waves of diseases,sorrow & pain. Thus Budha out of great compassion, Emanates as Bendurya,the Medicine Guru, To shine as a sun in the skies of the world, And dry up the water giving birth to all ills." A Benediction to the medicine Budha. Originally,Tibetan medicine dates back to the pre-Buddhist era. During the Bon period, various techniques were devised andpracticed. With the coming of Buddhism, medical knowledge became an integral part of religious doctrines and monastic disciplane.
Some have suggested that the Buddha's key teaching of the Four Noble Truths was based on a medical paradigm, where by suffering,its cause, its suppression,and the method for its elimination find a parallel in medicine to disease,its cause,health and the remedy.But actually the four fold division that occurs in Caraka Samhita is different from the Four Noble Truths."The best physician,one fit to treat king,is he whose knowledge is four fold:(he knows) the cause(hetu,sympton(linga),cure(prasamana),and nonoccurence (apunarbhava) of diseases. Tibetan medicine continued to progress due to effort of Buddhist monks and the emphasis laid on it bu religion. In the process,it derived influences from various external sources.The developement of tibetan system got an impetus during the 7th & 8th centuries. At this period the great Tibetan translator and scholar,Beru Tsana translated the "Ghyushi" teaching given by the Kashmiri scholar Chandrananda. It is said that spread of "Guhyu-shi" teaching was not ripe for revelation at that period.
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