Medical & Astrological Sciences

Tibetan medicine, or the “Science or Art of Healing” (Tibetan: Sowa Rigpa), has been practiced throughout Himalayas and Inner Asia for centuries. Rooted in classical Indian Aryurvedic medicine, and incorporating elements of Chinese, Greco-Arabic, and indigenous medical knowledge. The Art of Healing reflects the Tibetans encounter with the cultural traditions around them, from the time of the height of the Tibetan empire, and the introduction of Buddhism around the seventh century. This integration of the religious and practical has become a definitive characteristic of Tibetan medicine, and the triangular relationship of medicine, Buddhism, and the visual arts has been essential to its development and transmission.

Tibetan medical practice is deeply connected to the Tibetan cultural worldview. The Tibetan term for health is troten, which translates as “to rely on what suits you,” indicates the wholistic approach to understanding an individual’s wellness and reliance on all available means to maintain balance of body, mind, and the environment. As such illness is not necessarily only related to the body’s internal workings but can also be seen as the influence of spirits. Tibetan doctors diagnose the patient by observation, interview, and taking pulse readings. Tibetan doctors perfected various kinds of treatments, such as modifying diet, prescribing compound medicines, and performing surgery.

Further, Tibetan medical and Buddhist traditions posit that true well-being cannot be reached unless one attains enlightenment and is released from the cycle of rebirths (samsara). Medical treatment is thus seen as providing only a temporary sense of well-being, and Tibetans pursue different means to promote health, long life, and liberation from worldly suffering.

Across the globe, astrology and divination have played prominent roles in traditional decision making, for rulers and common folk alike. This need to understand the future has resulted in the development of intricate systems of prediction that not only make determinations about what is to come but also provide the tools to take the future into one’s own hands.

Tibetan divination is rooted in the traditions of India, Nepal, and China. It has three distinct branches: Indian astrology, which systematizes time and makes predictions according to the motion of the planets; martial conquest, which is of Nepalese Shivite origin; and Chinese elemental divination, based on the relationships formed by the five elements, twelve animal signs, eight trigrams, and nine numeric squares.

Both medical and astrological sciences were systematized in the late seventeenth century by the regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Desi Sanggye Gyatso (1653–1705). He also founded the Lhasa Medical and Astrological College (Mentsikhang) for the study and practice of these interdependent disciplines. He authored the medical Blue Beryl and astrological White Beryl treatises and commissioned illustrations for both. These paintings are examples of a tradition of Tibetan technical illustration that appears to have been established at that time.

The aligned goals of both medicine and Buddhism in the prevention, alleviation, and eradication of suffering make them natural partners. The wholistic approach to understanding an individual’s wellbeing relates to emotional states of mind, the body’s internal condition, as well as external influences of the environment and must be considered together. Thus Tibetan medical and astrological knowledge are seen as linked, and taught and practiced jointly, usually within the context of the Buddhist worldview.