Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies

Issue 7 August 2013

ISSN 1550-6363 An online journal published by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL) www.jiats.org

Editor-in-Chief: David Germano Guest Editor: Karl Debreczeny Book Review Editor: Bryan J. Cuevas Managing Editor: Steven Weinberger Assistant Editors: Naomi Worth, Ben Nourse, and William McGrath Technical Director: Nathaniel Grove

Contents
Articles Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas in History: A Brief Note (pp. 1-16)
Elliot Sperling

Si tu pa chen and the House of Sde dge: A Demanding but Beneficial

Relationship (pp. 17-48) Rmi Chaix

The Prolific Preceptor: Si tu pa chens Career as Ordination Master in Khams and

Its Effect on Sectarian Relations in Sde dge (pp. 49-85) Jann Ronis

Purity in the Pudding and Seclusion in the Forest: Si tu pa chen, Monastic Ideals,
and the Buddhas Biographies (pp. 86-124) Nancy G. Lin

Si tu pa chen and His Painting Style: A Retrospective (pp. 125-192)

Tashi Tsering

Si tu pa chens Artistic Legacy in Jang (pp. 193-276)

Karl Debreczeny

Mercury, Mad Dogs, and Smallpox: Medicine in the Si tu pa chen

Tradition (pp. 277-301) Frances Garrett

Si tu pa chen on Scholarship (pp. 302-315)

Kurtis R. Schaeffer

Notes Apropos to the Oeuvre of Si tu pa chen Chos kyi byung

gnas (1699?-1774) (4): A Tibetan Sanskritist in Nepal (pp. 316-339) (forthcoming) Peter Verhagen

ii

Other Articles Arriving Ahead of Time: The Ma das sprul sku and Issues of Sprul sku
Personhood (pp. 340-364) Marcia S. Calkowski

The Significant Leap from Writing to Print: Editorial Modification in the First
Printed Edition of the Collected Works of Sgam po pa Bsod nams rin chen (pp. 365-425) Ulrich Timme Kragh

In the Hidden Valley of the White Conch: The Inscription of a Bhutanese Pure
Land (pp. 426-453) Bryan Phillips and Lopen Ugyen Gyurme Tendzin

Book Reviews Review of A Noble Noose of Methods, The Lotus Garland Synopsis: A Mahyoga
Tantra and Its Commentary, by Cathy Cantwell and Robert Mayer (pp. 454-464) Giacomella Orofino

Abstracts (pp. 465-469) Contributors to this Issue (pp. 470-473)

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Mercury, Mad Dogs, and Smallpox: Medicine in the Si tu pa chen Tradition

-

Frances Garrett
University of Toronto

Abstract: Si tu pa chen (1700-1774) was an active student, teacher, and practitioner of Tibetan medicine. This paper discusses a few features of the Si tu tradition of medicine, based on a study of several works attributed to Si tu and to his students. It begins with an overview of Si tus own medical practice and the state of institutional and textual medicine in his day, and then addresses distinctive features of the Si tu medical tradition by examining its dominant and authoritative texts. The paper then focuses on three topics the use of mercury, the treatment of mad dogs, and remedies for smallpox proposing characteristics of a distinctive Si tu medical tradition.

Introduction
Famous for his contributions to art and grammar, Si tu pa chen (1700-1774) is also claimed by Tibetan medical historians as one of the great figures of medicine. He was a major supporter of institutional medicine, sponsoring the reprinting of a number of important medical works and establishing a medical college at Dpal spungs monastery. Not only did he support the medical tradition administratively, he was also an active student, teacher, and practitioner of medicine. This paper will discuss a few features of the Si tu tradition of medicine, based on a study of several works attributed to Si tu and to his students. I will begin with an overview of Si tus own medical practice and the state of institutional and textual medicine in his day.1 I will then comment on some distinctive features of the Si tu medical
1 I am grateful to Dr Dorjee Rapten Neshar, Karl Debreczeny, Jann Ronis, and E. Gene Smith for their assistance with this article. By institutional medicine I am referring to larger-scale medical traditions organized and supported by major institutions, and by textual medicine I am referring to the academic and often rhetorical presentation of medicine as found in texts. Both of these may be contrasted to an on-the-ground practice of medicine on a smaller or more individualized scale, which would have been, and still is, conducted by doctors and other sorts of healers whose traditions and behaviors are not necessarily represented in Tibetan texts. For more on such ideas, see Don Bates, ed., Knowledge and the Scholarly Medical Traditions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 7 (August 2013): 277-301. http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5749. 1550-6363/2013/7/T5749. 2013 by Frances Garrett, Tibetan and Himalayan Library, and International Association of Tibetan Studies. Distributed under the THL Digital Text License.

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tradition by examining the kinds of texts dominant in this tradition and the textual sources its practitioners considered authoritative. Where, among the vast body of Tibetan literature that had accumulated by the eighteenth century, did Si tu and his students find authoritative information about healing illness? In the second part of this paper, I will focus in particular on three topics the use of mercury, the treatment of mad dogs, and remedies for smallpox, allowing me to characterize further a distinctive Si tu medical tradition. I will begin with a few words about Si tus own experience with medical practice. Si tus Autobiography and Diaries2 records his lifelong fascination with healing and gradual exposure to medical scholarship. Si tu seems to have received little formal medical education before adulthood, although in his early twenties, he is already familiar with various healing techniques.3 On a trip to Nepal in his mid-twenties, he is asked by the Nepali king to help with a several-year epidemic outbreak of something like cholera. Si tu, although not well versed in medicine according to his diaries, prepares some empowered water (khrus chu) to address the outbreak. The Nepali king gives Si tu and his assistant two white horses, and they circle the town distributing the water.4 (In this remedy, which is more typically offered by bla mas than by doctors, the afflicted patient takes in and then spits out the water, whereupon his or her illness is also thought to be expelled.) As a young man on pilgrimage, Si tu makes sure to visit sites of importance to medical practitioners, such as a footprint of the Medicine Buddha he travels to see in Central Tibet.5 It is not until his late twenties that Si tu receives the authorization transmission (lung) to study the Four Tantras (Rgyud bzhi).6 Despite his lack of formal training, however, he had already acquired a reputation for skill at healing and was involved in religious rites, such as the medicine empowerment (sman
2 Si-tu pa-chen Chos-kyi-byu-gnas [Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas], The Autobiography and Diaries of Si-tu Pa-Chen, ed. Lokesh Chandra, atapiaka Series (New Delhi: New Delhi International Academy of Indian Culture 1968). 3 Here I am contrasting formal medical education, by which I mean the study of the canon of medical literature, with practical training in healing techniques that are widely part of the religious canon; Si tus biography shows that he first took an early interest in ritual healing practices, only later turning to formal study of the canon of medical literature. 4 Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 119. It is difficult to tell from this text what Si tus age is at any given point in the autobiography, so my presentation here is approximate. 5 6

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 131-32.

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 130. In many respects considered the chief Tibetan medical text even today, the Rgyud bzhi (or in full, the Bdud rtsi snying po yan lag brgyad pa gsang ba man ngag gi rgyud (Delhi: Bod kyi lcags po rii dran rten slob gner khang, 1993; Lha sa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1982 and 2000) was arranged in the eleventh century by the physician G.yu thog yon tan mgon po (1112-1203), probably following a long period of development. Commentarial writing on this seminal work continues to the present day. The Rgyud bzhi has one hundred and fifty six chapters arranged in four volumes: the Rtsa rgyud [Root Tantra]; the Bshad rgyud [Explanatory Tantra], with a description of the human body and basic details on causes of disease and principles of therapeutics; the Man ngag rgyud [Secret Oral Tantra], with specific instructions and methods of diagnosis; and the Phyi ma rgyud [Concluding Tantra], with detailed information on treatment methods. Translation of portions of the Rtsa rgyud and the Bshad rgyud are available in English in Barry Clark, trans., The Quintessence Tantras of Tibetan Medicine, (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publishers, 1995).

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sgrub), that are common to religious and medical practitioners.7 Despite feeling untrained in medicine, he was nevertheless already renowned for his mastery of nonmedicinal healing remedies: when called upon by the Sde dge king to treat a painful stomach disorder (glang thabs) about which the medical tradition has much to say, Si tu treats the king not with medicine but with a exorcism ritual (gto bcos).8 His drive to expand his medical knowledge leads him to train in and translate Chinese medical texts9 and talk to visiting Nepali doctors about their healing techniques,10 and, finally, Si tu writes that in his early thirties, he really starts to learn Tibetan medicine.11 From that point on, he begins giving frequent Medicine Buddha initiations and treating patients using Tibetan medicine.12 It is not only Tibetan medical scholarship that Si tu eagerly devours, however, for during his travels in Nepal and China he continues to study the medical traditions of those regions. By his thirties, he is studying Chinese medicine with Chinese doctors during his visits to Lijiang (Li kyang hu) and elsewhere,13 and his healing techniques from that point appear to have been a combination of remedies from Tibetan medicine, Chinese medicine, and other techniques he picked up on his travels.14 Over the next two decades of his life, Si tu acquires and translates numerous medical prescriptions from regions all around Eastern Tibet, and he also records medical information brought to him by visitors from those regions.15 He writes of receiving many letters of appreciation for his medical treatment from patients,16 and he mentions having many students of medicine, several of whom became prominent physicians in their own right as well as prolific authors. By his fifties, Si tu is fully occupied by medical practice, study, and scholarship. In his Autobiography he records time spent in the mountains collecting medicinal herbs with students17 and meetings with doctors nearly every day to discuss medicines and healing remedies, covering subjects such as treatments meant to completely
7 8 9

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 173. Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 179.

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 150 (for training in Chinese medicine) and 183 (for translating Chinese medical texts).
10 11

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 171. Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 183.

12 Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 207, 218. Later in his life he also began giving G.yu thog snying thig initiations; see Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 286. 13 Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 183. Another reference to his study of Chinese medicine can be found at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 150. 14 See below for more on this, and also his offering of a Chinese health tonic to the Sde dge king at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 285. 15 See for example the mention of travel to acquire medical remedies in Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Brum bcos sogs rgya bod kyi sman bcos sna tshogs phan bdei byung gnas, in Tai si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi byung gnas bstan pai nyin byed kyi bka bum (Collected Works of the Great tai si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi byun gnas bstan pai nyin byed) (Sansal, Dist. Kangra, H.P.: Palpung Sungrab Nyamso Khang, 1990), 318. A Nepali scholar brings him medical teachings at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 171. 16 17

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 302. Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 334-5.

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eradicate smallpox epidemics or sexually transmitted diseases (reg dug), eye surgery, the preparation of pills targeted at disease-causing serpent demons (klu sman ril bu), and the healing properties of various kinds of offering rituals, such as those involving mdos, gto, or gtor ma.18 By his sixties, he is teaching Chinese as well as Tibetan medicine, and he is frequently called upon to treat illnesses at a distance.19 Near the end of his life, he turns again to work with mercury and other rare metals in the creation of precious pills, at that time being able to use his cache with the Sde dge king to obtain from the royal home these expensive materials in exchange for treating the king with highly valued remedies.20 Si tus Autobiography portrays him as a doctor of especially broad medical expertise. Unlike most doctors, who may specialize in only one form of diagnosis, such as pulse diagnosis, or one form of treatment, such as moxibustion, Si tu had a rare breadth of expertise, displaying facility with of all kinds of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, including many techniques more common among tantric adepts than doctors, such as exorcisms, ransom offerings or stick therapy (dbyug bcos),21 and his large-scale healing ceremonies were requested by royalty throughout Tibetan regions.22 Not only was Si tu a renowned practitioner of medicine, however, he was also a scholar. He revised and taught important medical works, such as the Instructions of the Great Zur-mkhar Myam-id-rdo-rje on Medical Treatment Comprising the Ma yig, Bu yig, and Kha thor Collections [Bye ba ring gsal] and the Four Tantras,23 and he was called upon to verify the authenticity of medical manuscripts.24 At the end of his life, Si tu reports irregularies in his pulse and urine, and dreams portending imminent death, and despite repeated long-life ceremonies (tshe sgrub) performed on his behalf, he died at age ninety-four.25 His students report that his body stayed warm, in a posture of meditation, for six days. On the

About eradicating smallpox, see Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 408; on sexually transmitted diseases, see 409; on meeting a specialist in eye surgery, see 453; on klu sman, see 408; on offering rituals, see 418 and 431. Si tu not only received visits from doctors but traveled to seek them out; in addition to his travels in Nepal and China, he mentions traveling to Lha sa to meet with doctors there at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 440.
19 20 21

18

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 408, 450, and 467. Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 617.

See passages about Si tu performing or teaching stick therapy at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 457 and 489. Stick therapy is a remedy practiced by Brug pa bka brgyud tantric practitioners (rtogs ldan) which involves beating the patient with a stick aiming to hit certain key parts of the body, beating out the illness (Dr Dorje Rabten Neshar, personal communication, 2/19/09).
22 In addition to examples of this above, see also his successful healing of the gravely ill king of Gling through a large ritual ceremony at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 535 and further treatments of the Sde dge king at 617 and 681. 23 Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 625. The Bye ba ring gsal can be found as Zur-mkhar Mam-id-rdo-rje [Zur mkhar mnyam nyid rdo rje], Bye Ba Ri Bsrel (Instructions of the Great Zur-mkhar Mam-id-rdo-rje on Medical Treatment Comprising the Ma yig, Bu yig, and Kha thor Collections) [Bye ba ring bsrel], Smanrtsis Shesrig Spendzod 58 (Leh: S.W. Tashigangpa, 1974). 24 Si tu is asked to check the manuscript of the Zla bai rgyal po at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries of, 694. 25

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 724.

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seventh day the heat left his body. Many people came to pay their respects, and a golden stpa was erected to hold his remains.26

Medical Writing in Si tus Day

Si tus combination of religious and medical erudition was, in fact, not so unusual. By the fifteenth century, two major schools of Tibetan medicine had arisen, the Byang and the Zur. The leaders of these traditions were scholars of religion and medicine alike, highly placed in both administrative hierarchies. By Si tu pa chens time, the Byang tradition had largely died out, and it was with a branch of the Zur tradition that Si tu was most closely allied. The Zur had been founded by Zur mkhar mnyam nyid rdo rje (1439-1475), also known for both religious and medical scholarship, his medical writings relying heavily on Buddhist tantras.27 Mnyam nyid rdo rje wrote widely on pharmacy and materia medica, in particular, and his famous Instructions on Medical Treatment is one of Si tus most widely cited sources. By the sixteenth century, a branch of Zur tradition lineage holders had developed, dominated by a series of scholars from the Bri gung bka brgyud school; this branch therefore became known as the Bri gung school of Tibetan medicine. Although Si tus sources varied widely, he relied heavily on writers of this Bri gung school. By Si tus time, a vast amount of medical writing in Tibetan had accumulated, and while there is no clear indigenous categorization of medical genres, there are several recognizable types of medical literature. Commentaries on the Four Tantras form one genre of medical writing, of course, and yet most texts in most periods of history are focused on nosology, pharmacy, and materia medica, including what we today might call magical or ritual healing. These works are listings, descriptions, and classifications of specific diseases (i.e., nosology) or catalogs of therapeutic prescriptions, some of which involve combining medicinal substances to make pills or decoctions, for instance, but others of which involve meditation, mantra recitation, amulets, or talismans. These kinds of texts often read something like a reference work, with little of what we might think of as medical theory, and most such works are presented in a style that lacks the thematic or taxonomic organization of classical expositions of the Buddhist path or tenet systems. Short and long descriptions of diagnostic techniques, remedies or recipes, some with their own colophons noting authors or sources, are strung together, one after another, to form a collection that may have served its users as a sort of reference book or that may have served as a way of canonizing the sources that a particular author or tradition felt to be authoritative. In addition to these genres, a recent article by Janet Gyatso highlights the development of a particular approach to medical writing that seems to have arisen in the sixteenth century, the nyams yig, or writing from
26 27

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 728.

For more on this tradition, see Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Gso rig sman gyi khog bugs (Dharamsala: Tibetan Medical & Astro Institute, 1994), 329 onwards. See also Mnyam nyid rdo rjes biography in Bkra shis tshe ring, bod kyi gso ba rig pai ched rtsom gces btus (Lha sa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 1994).

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experience. Gyatso suggests that this genre may have supplanted the authority of the Four Tantras itself, those works that were based on hands-on experience now considered more useful to the actual practice of medicine.28 Indeed, medical writing of the Si tu tradition relies heavily on a series of works referred to as nyams yig. Si tu pa chens Collected Works include a few texts explicitly on medical topics, including a small catalog of the thirteenth-century Eighteen Additional Practices (Cha lag bco brgyad) (a work the reprinting of which Si tu sponsored),29 a compilation of remedies from Tibetan, Chinese, and Indian sources on a variety of ailments,30 a short work devoted to healing with mantras,31 and several works on related topics of astrology or ritual, which might be considered medical, and which certainly cover healing techniques. Despite their inclusion in Si tus Collected Works, most of these texts are in fact attributed to his students, although the writings of these students are clearly recorded as the teachings of Si tu. All of this is to say that we have more information about a general Si tu tradition, as documented by a number of his students, than we do about the actual medical writings of Si tu himself. In this wider tradition we find, then, beyond Si tu pa chens Collected Works, a work on how to recognize medicinal plants and their efficacy,32 a collection of practical instructions following the arrangement of the third and fourth books of the Four Tantras,33 a collection of various instructions for the purification of mercury and the ritual and contemplative consecration practices (sman sgrub)

28 Janet Gyatso, The Authority of Empiricism and the Empiricism of Authority: Medicine and Buddhism in Tibet on the Eve of Modernity, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24, no. 2 (2004): 86. Gyatso notes that many works called nyams yig may have been given that designation retroactively, which does seem likely, given that in the Si tu tradition one prominent source is the nyams yig of G.yu thog (e.g., G.yu thogs work, the Bu don ma, is sometimes called a nyams yig). Although there are many citations in the Si tu sman bsdus e wam [Compendium of Situs Medicine: E and Wam] from works referred to as nyams yig, it is not always clear what texts these refer to. Sometimes the Sman bsdus e wam [Compendium of Medicine: E and Wam] provides a bit of authorial information, referring, for example, to Dkon rgyal bas nyams yig, or Phyag rdor mgon pos nyams yig. 29 I have written about this collection in Frances Garrett, Buddhism and the Historicizing of Medicine in Thirteenth Century Tibet, Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 2, no. 2 (2007): 204-224. It is interesting that Si tu sponsored the reprinting of this text, given its criticism by Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho; this and other criticism make evident Si tus rivalry with the Central Tibetan tradition. 30 31

Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Rgya bod kyi sman bcos.

Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Mantra zhes pai sman bcos skor, in Tai si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi byung gnas bstan pai nyin byed kyi bka bum (Collected Works of the Great tai si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi byun gnas bstan pai nyin byed) (Sansal, Dist. Kangra, H.P.: Palpung Sungrab Nyamso Khang, 1990).
32 Yid-lhu Jam-dbyas [Yid lhung jam dbyangs] et al., Nus Pa Rkya Sel Gyi Sman o Gsal Byed (Instructions for Recognizing Various Medicinal Plants According to the Methods Taught by Si-Tu Pa-Chen Chos-Kyi-Byu-Gnas) [Nus pa rkyang sel gyi sman ngo gsal byed], Smanrtsis Shesrig Spendzod, 145 (Leh: J.P. Tashigang, 1986).

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Man ngag rgyud dang phyi ma rgyud kyi lhan thabs kyi tshul du bkod pa phan bdei nor bui bang mdzod, Bod kyi gso ba rig pai gna dpe phyogs bsgrigs dpe tshogs 3 (Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2004).

33

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required for making precious pills (rin chen ril bu), including the famous black pill (about which I will say more below), and others. Certainly the most significant work of the Si tu tradition, however, is the giant publication known as the Compendium of Situs Medicine: E and Wam, running over 1600 folio sides in two volumes.34 The text was compiled by one of Si tus closest students, Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, who was born about 1700 in Sde dge. The first part, the E volume, is a catalog organized nosologically, that is, by disease type, covering descriptions of diseases and their taxonomic relations to each other and a wide range of healing techniques. The catalog is based loosely on the Four Tantras tradition, but it is not a commentary on the Four Tantras I will return to this point in a moment. The second part, the Wam volume, is mainly a collection of medical remedies it lacks much of the first volumes nosological and taxonomic information about disease conditions, instead recording, in more than 1,000 pages, a vast assortment of treatment techniques for various conditions.

Sources of Knowledge in the Si tu Tradition

One of the most interesting and valuable things about the Compendium of Situs Medicine (Si tu sman bsdus) is that it is just that, a collection not only of disease conditions and their remedies, but also, more important from our perspective, it is an anthology of citations from a wide range of source materials, spanning hundreds of years of writing on both medical and religious topics. A survey of these sources can tell us much about the Bri gung school of Tibetan medicine with which Si tu and his students were allied. For text critical purposes, moreover, and also given that some of these sources may no longer exist, the Compendiums thorough recording of these citations is especially valuable. Not surprisingly, the Four Tantras is one of the Compendiums central sources: under the heading of a given disease condition, the text will sometimes (but not always) begin with a presentation of that topic according to the Four Tantras. Interestingly, however, the Four Tantras does not dominate this collection.35 More extensively cited than the Four Tantras is another work of the same period, and by the same author: this is the Yutok Manuscript (G.yu thog shog dril),36 which
Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 2 vols., Smanrtsis Shesrig Spendzod, 55-56 (Leh: T.Y. Tashigang, 1973).
35 It is clear that the Rgyud bzhi, famously called the most important text in Tibetan medicine, is in fact only one of very many authoritative sources for the Si tu medical tradition, one that may be questioned, moreover, and one that simply may not be an adequate guide for the practicing doctor. This fact suggests that we need to think carefully about the nature of the dominance of the Rgyud bzhi in Tibetan medical history: although it may be true that medical students even today are required to memorize the famous work, in what way is it actually held to be authoritative? 36 The Shog dril skor gsum las gser gyi thur mai lde mig rnam drug can be found in Yon tan mgon po (1112-1203), G.yu thog sman yig phyogs bsgrigs, Bod kyi gso ba rig pai gna dpe phyogs bsgrigs dpe tshogs 58 (Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2007), 315-30. This text is commented on in Mi pham rgya mtsho, G.yu thog shog dril skor gsum gyi ma bu don bsdeb tu bkol ba, in gsung bum: mi pham rgya mtsho (The Expanded Redaction of the Complete Works of Ju Mi-Pham Series) [Gsung bum 34

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is one of the most extensively cited sources in the Compendiums first volume. But beyond the works of G.yu thog, the array of sources cited in the Compendium is truly extraordinary, ranging widely both temporally and geographically, from the earliest periods of medical writing to Si tus own time, and from Tibet to India to Nepal to China.37 I will briefly survey these sources in the following paragraphs. Beginning with writings considered to be earlier than the Four Tantras, works by Padmasambhava, for example, are considered especially helpful in the Compendium,38 particularly in the section in rims nads. There is at least one citation from a ninth-century work by Gnubs sangs rgyas ye shes.39 The Bstan gyur-canonized Eight Branches (Agahdayasahit), a work of Indian yurveda that is thought to be one of the Four Tantrass main sources, is cited a few times, once at great length,40 and a general Indian tradition of treatment is often cited.41 Sources from the next several centuries are especially common. Medical treatments of Rang byung rdo rje (1284-1339), the third Karma pa, are discussed on several occasions.42 Rang byung rdo rje was responsible for transmission of the
mi pham rgya mtsho] (Paro, Bhutan: Lama Ngodrup and Sherab Drimey, 1984-1993). I have been unable to obtain a copy of the Shog dril skor gsum in time to examine it for this paper. G.yu thogs Bu don ma is also cited.
37 This range is all the more remarkable if we compare the text to Sangs rgyas rgya mtshos Man ngag lhan thabs [Concise Instructions for Medical Application], a work that is roughly similar in structure and content, and one with which the Sman bsdus e wam is often compared. The Man ngag lhan thabs is radically different in the very small number of sources it cites explicitly. 38 Padmasambhava is cited often, most commonly his Bdud rtsi bum pa, e.g. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 137, 87, 202, 315, 406, 90. 39 Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 489. The text cited is the Gso ba dkar po lam gyi sgron ma, not known to exist now. 40 Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 418 and 2: 53. On the Eight Branches and its influence on Tibetan medicine, see R.E. Emmerick, Sources of the Rgyud-Bzhi, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft (suppl. III), no. 2 (1977): 1135-42, Ronald Eric Emmerick and R.P. Das, Vgbhaas Agahdayasahit. The Romanised Text Accompanied by Line and Word Indexes, Groningen Oriental Studies XIII (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1998), Claus Vogel, Vgbhaas Agahdayasahit: The First Five Chapters of Its Tibetan Version, Abhanglungen fr die Kunde Des Morgenlandes 37, no. 2 (Wiesbaden: Deutsche Morgenlndische Gesellschaft, Komissionsverkag Franz Steiner GMBH, 1965), Frances Garrett, Religion, Medicine and the Human Embryo in Tibet, Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism (Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2008). Although this work played a critical role in early Tibetan medical history, by Si tus time it seems to have retained little influence. E.g., see also a reference to this work in the autobiography of Blo gsal bstan skyong (b. 1804), who claims that while the Eight Branches is the primary work of Tibets early medical history, at the time of Blo gsal bstan skyongs own life, a transmission of instructions concerning that text is no longer extant. Blo gsal bstan skyong, Rang gi rnam thar du byas pa shel dkar me long, in On the History of the Monastery of Zhwa-lu: Being the Texts of the Zhwa lu gdan rabs and the Autobiography by Zhwa-lu-Ri-sbug Sprul-sku Blo-gsal-bstan-skyong, Smanrtsis Shesrig Spendzod 9. (S.W. Tashigangpa. Leh, 1971), 505. I am grateful to Ben Wood for this reference. 41 For example, see Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 534, 546 and 2: 361. In addition to these, Dar ma mgon po, eleventh-century author of two still-extant nosological texts central to a distinctive Bo dong medical tradition, is also referred to at least once; Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 313. 42

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 506, 522, 523.

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infamous black pill recipe for refining mercury and other metals, to a lineage that reached the founder of the Zur tradition of Tibetan medicine, Zur mkhar mnyam nyid rdo rje (1439-1475) in the fifteenth century, passing eventually to the Zur offshoot school, that of the Bri gung bka brgyud, and thus to the Si tu tradition. Also from the fourteenth century, Rin chen rgya mtshos Drongts Scripture (Brong rtse be bum) is utilized,43 as is the work of medical scholar Brang ti dpal ldan tsho byed.44 Two of the most important of the Compendiums sources are Mnyam nyid rdo rjes fifteenth-century Instructions on Medical Treatment and the writings of Phyag rdor mgon po, a sixteenth-century physician about whom little is known.45 As the sources come closer to Si tus own time, several Bka brgyud scholars are cited, including the great Bri gung bka brgyud scholar, Bri gung rig dzin chos kyi grags pa (1595-1659), and Mi pham dge legs rnam rgyal (1618-1685), a Brug pa bka brgyud scholar known, like Si tu, for his mastery of grammar and medicine. While some of the sources I have mentioned above are by authors known mainly for their contributions to medicine, the Compendium clearly does not rely only on such medical works, as in fact there are many works primarily known as part of the religious canon that are authoritative sources for the Si tu tradition. In addition to those mentioned above, the Compendium refers to various revealed treasures (gter ma), including the works of Gu ru chos dbang (1212-1270), Ra mo shel sman (thirteenth century), Padma gling pa (1450-1521), as well as the treasure tradition in general. In this quick survey we have heard the names of various scholars considered authoritative in matters medical and religious, but it is important to note that the Compendium of Situs Medicine does not simply accept the views of these sources uncritically, nor are the citations provided entirely without commentary or evaluation. Throughout the work, Karma nges legs bstan dzin comments on where the reader should look to find the most authoritative or effective information on a given topic. In general, he says, we can consider authoritative the practical instructions provided in the third and fourth books of the Four Tantras and the information in the second book on the medicinal properties of individual substances, but for some topics, such as the treatment of certain gnyan nads, he urges the practitioner to consult treasure texts. Similarly, while famous medical scholars have authored important precious pill remedies, Karma nges legs bstan dzin reminds us that many such treatments have been provided by kins. The treatment of certain poisons, venereal diseases, and smallpox, moreover, are often best done using Chinese medicine,46 and it is the Uygurs who know how to treat authorization
43 44 45

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 232. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 2: 302. His works are cited as Phyag rdor mgon poi gces btus or generically as the Phyag sman pai lugs.

46 Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 8. On Chinese remedies for venereal diseases, also see Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 533. On Chinese treatments of smallpox, see Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Brum bcos sogs rgya bod kyi sman bcos sna tshogs phan bdei byung gnas, 212, 216.

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transmission disease.47 Chinese and Mongolian methods of moxibustion may be especially helpful for some conditions,48 and the mantras and amulets of Nepali or Indian yogis are recommended for others.49 The Compendium has a wealth of information for the textual historian, in other words, as well as a perspective on how Tibetan doctors regarded the authority of texts, both particular texts and also literature in general. Karma nges legs bstan dzin comments that remedies for fluid retention found in the work of Zur mkhar blo gros rgyal po are derived from that of the thirteenth-century treasure revealer Ra mo shel sman, for example.50 He provides a comparative assessment of remedies for certain epidemic diseases in the Four Tantras and the treasure tradition,51 and various comparative assessments of the Four Tantras and the Instructions on Medical Treatment. He compares several traditions of the practice of sucking disease out through the skin (jib), recommending one as the easiest.52 Karma nges legs bstan dzin is highly critical of Sangs rgyas rgya mtshos work, the Concise Instructions for Medical Application, for ignoring a host of essential sources.53 He criticizes practicing doctors of his own day for no longer studying medical literature.54 Despite placing great importance on textual study, he also calls upon his own life experience, commenting that while the medical treatises certainly offer many remedies, he has experienced some things as a doctor that cannot be found recorded in texts.55

Mercury, Mad Dogs, and Smallpox

I would like to turn now to the content of medical works in the Si tu tradition, addressing three topics that are of special interest to me and that may provide something of the flavor of Si tus medical tradition. The first of these is the process of treating mercury for use in pills, a technique that is the focus of several works of the Si tu tradition and one that he describes practicing throughout his Autobiography.56 Methods for preparing and using mercury are said to have come from India, passing through the hands of the third Karma pa Rang byung rdo rje, substantially developed by Zur mkhar nyams nyid rdo rje, and then moving along

47 48 49

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 2: 425. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 593.

See for example Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 2: 321, 349, 361.
50 51 52 53 54 55 56

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 97. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 137. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 601. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 8. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 202. Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 516. For example, see Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 282.

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a lineage of Bri gung bka brgyud teachers to Si tu and his students.57 While techniques of mercury usage are described in the Four Tantras, Zur mkhar nyams nyid rdo rje and the later Bri gung bka brgyud tradition are especially famous for the development of the tradition of mercury purification known as btso thal and its subsequent use in the so-called precious black pill (rin chen ril nag). As described in the Si tu traditions Instructions for the Preparation of Mercury Pellets , the process takes place over a series of astrologically scheduled steps, beginning with the gathering of ingredients and followed by detoxification of the mercury. Detoxification is a difficult procedure over which there has been some controversy in Tibet, as is indicated by this works careful negotiating of varying sources.58 In brief, mercury is detoxified by a lengthy process of cooking the substance over a fire in stages, in combination with various groupings of other substances. After detoxification the mercury is ready for use in medicinal preparations, and ingredients should be mixed and ground while reciting mantras and propitiating the Medicine Buddha. The mixture should be shaped into pills, which should then be consecrated by the creation of the set of material objects required for ritual ceremonies (a maala, gtor ma, inner offerings, and so on) and their use in the performance of a medicine empowering (sman sgrub) or medicine sdhan ritual involving contemplative and ritual exercises. The powerful effects of this ritual process are then poured into the pills. I will not say more now about the process of mercury preparation and the very complicated recipes that describe the creation of precious pills using mercury, but it is important to note simply that the Si tu tradition is one in which this practice is of special significance and in which it has therefore been addressed in special detail. A second topic of interest is that of treating dog poison (khyi dug). Tibetan medicine has a well-developed science of mad dogs (khyi smyon), providing detailed instructions on how to recognize a mad dog by visual examination, looking at the color of its eyes and fur and a special downward curl to its tail, and by systems of chemical analysis, such as by collecting the dogs saliva and dropping it on a crystal to see if it turns black. There are also long descriptions of the behavioral

57 A lineage of this transmission can be found in Sde-dge Dru-yig Gu-ru-phel [Sde dge drung yig gu ru phel], Srid Gsum Gtsug Rgyan Si Tu Chos Kyi Byu Gnas Kyi al Lu Dul Chu Btso Chen Ril Bui Sbyor Sde Zab Bdun Bdud Rtsii Thig Le (Instructions for the Preparation of Mercury Pellets According to the Teachings of the Great Si-Tu Pa-Chen Chos-Kyi-Byu-Gnas) [Srid gsum gtsug rgyan si tu chos kyi byung gnas kyi zhal lung dngul chu btso chen ril bui sbyor sde zab bdun bdud rtsii thig le], Smanrtsis Shesrig Spendzod 139 (Leh: T. Sonam and D.L. Tashigang, 1985), 8-10. This text is authored by a student of Si tu named Gu ru phel. Following this work in the same publication are several other shorter texts also on mercury use. Mention of Si tus own experience with mercury preparation can be found at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 282. On the use of mercury in precious pills, also see Yonten Gyatso, The Secrets of the Black Pill Formulation, Tibetan Medicine, no. 13 (1991): 38-55. In addition to being the subject of Gu ru phels work above, the use of mercury and creation of precious black pills are discussed elsewhere in the Si tu medical corpus: for example, see Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Rgya bod kyi sman bcos, 302-19. Following this, on 319-334, is another short work on the topic, said to be notes on the Dngul chu btso bkru chen mo, which is the classic text on this tradition of mercury purification by O rgyan pa rin chen dpal (1229-1309). 58 For example, see the comparison between techniques of O rgyan pa with those of Zur mkhar pa, in Sde dge drung yig gu ru phel, Dngul chu btso chen, 68.

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traits of a mad dog, the stages of illness that may take place in a person and, of course, remedies for treatment of disease caused by dog bite. This subject receives more than ten pages of attention in the Compendium of Situs Medicine, a fairly large section, falling within the context of remedies for poisoning of all types.59 The signs of illness and characteristics of resulting wounds are discussed in the Four Tantras, the Compendium tells us, but, as is the style in this work, a number of other sources are cited as well, including the Instructions on Medical Treatment and various works by authors such as Phyag rdor mgon po, Gong sman dkon mchog bde legs, an unnamed Indian master, and the great Bri gung abbot, scholar and treasure revealer (gter ston), Rin chen phun tshogs chos kyi rgyal po (1509-1557). Most of the remedies are heavily ritualized, requiring the creation of purified spaces, mantra recitation, propitiation of deities, or circumambulation, as well as the wearing of protective amulets or talismans. Amid several pages of scriptural citation, the text records a bit of oral advice on healing mad dogs in which the consumption of an edible letter (za yig) preparation is recommended. This is a practice, found across hundreds of years of Tibetan occult or magic literature, that involves the consumption of small rolls of paper inscribed with Tibetan graphemes, written with ink prepared from blood, musk, or other ingredients, and often stuffed with various substances. These edible amulets serve a wide range of practical needs, from increasing ones wisdom or winning arguments, to protecting against thieves, contagious disease, spirit possession, or dog bite. Edible letter technologies also often involve visualizations and other ritual practices. These practices are found most widely, but not exclusively, in treasure literature60 and are most common in Rnying ma and Bka brgyud writings. Mi gyur rdo rje, a master of occult technologies whose collected works include hundreds of edible letter recipes, has written an entire text on the treatment of mad dogs in which edible letters may be recommended;61 his works are widely cited by those who write on edible letter practices from this point onward. I have written elsewhere about this practice of eating letters, noting particularly its wide acceptance by Eastern Tibetans or those who have spent much of their lives in that region, and discussing also its possible connections to similar Chinese practices. What is striking about Karma nges legss mention here of an edible letter remedy is that this is, I believe, the only edible letter remedy mentioned in the more than six-hundred folios of the first volume of the Compendium of Situs Medicine. This is fascinating, given that it is a prominent practice in the writings
59 The section on dog poison begins at Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 535. 60 For example, the writings of the fourteenth-century Rdo rje gling pa, the fifteenth-century Ratna gling pa and Padma gling pa, the seventeenth-century Klong gsal snying po and Mi gyur rdo rje all of these Rnying ma scholars feature edible letter practices. The practice can also be found in the works of Bka brgyud writers. Some of these authors are also known as authors of medical works. See Frances Garrett, Eating Letters in the Tibetan Treasure Tradition, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 32, no. 1-2 (2009[2010]): 85-113.

Mi gyur rdo rje, Khyi smyon bcos pai thabs lag tu blang pai rim pa bzhugs so, Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo 73, ed. Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha yas, 393-97 (Paro: Ngodrup and Sherab Drimay, 1976-1980).

61

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of other authors in Si tus own lineage and in closely affiliated traditions, and it is a technique about which he had been taught early in his life.62 What could account for this absence? I cannot answer this question now, but we can at least say that the massive Compendium and the other writings of the Si tu tradition, which appear to so comprehensively survey available healing techniques, are indeed presenting only a selective survey of methods known at the time. The final topic I will comment on is smallpox (brum nad). Smallpox is categorized in Tibetan medicine as a gnyan disease of epidemic proportions, meaning that it is a spreading, contagious or epidemic (rims) condition caused by gnyan spirits. In his Autobiography, Si tu mentions being called upon by doctors in search of remedies for smallpox, and he refers these callers to texts on the topic he has written in reaction to epidemics he was concerned about in both Khams and Central Tibet;63 so renowned was he for his knowledge of smallpox treatment, he was commissioned by the king of Sde dge to compose texts on his methods.64 Smallpox is discussed in great detail in several works of the Si tu tradition, and, interestingly, this is a subject for which the tradition seems especially to rely on Chinese expertise. The traditions longest work on the topic begins with a description of a Chinese text that provides diagnostic tips, dietary recommendations, and treatments for those in the early stages of smallpox infection.65 Later in this work, too, recommended remedies are said to be those of Chinese doctors.66 Smallpox was evidently a problem (as it had been for doctors in the region for more than a century)67 that was for Si tu and his students worthy of special research; the Compendium argues that when hoping to treat smallpox successfully it is especially important to study the relevant literature carefully.68 The special attention paid in the Si tu tradition to treatment of serious epidemic disease in general is likely a reaction to the rising occurrence of plague in southeastern Khams, which appears to have passed along the Puer-Tibetan tea trade routes during the eighteenth century and to the smallpox epidemics that swept Asia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Yunnan-Tibet tea trade routes,

62 See a reference to his learning about edible letter at Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 173. 63 64 65 66

Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 272-73. Si-tu pa-chen, Autobiography and Diaries, 299. Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Rgya bod kyi sman bcos, 212.

See a reference to doctors from Tsai na on Si tu pa chen chos kyi byung gnas, Rgya bod kyi sman bcos, 216, and on 220, a reference to a medical treatise from Ma ha tsai na that was translated by Si tu in li kyang hu. Karl Debreczeny tells me that Tsai na is a term found in Chinese Buddhist documents meaning Great China (Da cina), thought to derive from ancient Sanskrit references to China; it also appears in the Chinese translations of the Avatasaka Stra and the Ratnagarbha-dhra Stra. (Email communication, 1/10/09.)
67 See Olaf Czaja, The Making of the Blue Beryl: Some Remarks on the Textual Sources of the Famous Commentary of Sangye Gyatsho (1653-1705), in Soundings in Tibetan Medicine: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives: Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford, 2003, ed. Mona Schrempf (Brill, 2007), 355-356. 68

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 202-203.

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which date back to the eighth century, carried disease as well as tea; the route has been called a natural plague focus by the medical historian Ji Shuli.69 The town of Lijiang, where Si tu is known to have studied Chinese medicine in the first half of the 1700s, was the center of the Puer-Tibetan tea business, which was itself particularly active during the eighteenth century. Plague epidemics are known to have ravaged the area in the 1790s;70 a decade later, in some nearby areas nine out of ten houses were left empty by disease.71 Smallpox was greatly feared around Asia and also in Europe during these centuries, and for many, the only interventions available were the gods.72 In the Compendium, Karma nges legs writes passionately about the smallpox epidemic that has pervaded his region, leaving it bereft even of qualified doctors. He writes that he presents his text in the hopes that available practitioners may be able to address the spreading disease. Karma nges legs laments the fact that with qualified doctors either dead or in quarantine, available healers are not learned in the textual canon and so do more harm than good. He says that by the time of this texts writing, in 1756, he has witnessed four or five outbreaks of smallpox in his region, and he claims to have seen many people healed by the remedies he describes in the text. He thus compiles remedies in the Compendium, he says, out of a feeling of compassion for the many patients suffering smallpox who are otherwise discarded like sick animals.73

Conclusions
The Si tu tradition of medicine was distinctive in several ways. It drew on an unusually vast body of source material, calling upon the religious canon as often as the medical canon for effective healing remedies and thus questioning the monolithic authority often attributed to the Four Tantras. More remarkable than this diversity, however, is the traditions geographic reach, with Chinese, South Asian, and other medical traditions sometimes proving more influential even than the Tibetan classics. This is a diversity I have not seen in medical writings from Central Tibetan authors, and it emphasizes the need to understand Tibetan medical knowledge and practice as being as widely diverse as we know religious traditions in Tibet to be. There is no single Tibetan medical tradition, in other words, and future research in the area should be aimed at further articulating this diversity. My survey of the Si tu tradition has also emphasized how a medical tradition responds to local and historical circumstances. The reality of horrifically devastating pandemic outbreaks in eighteenth-century Asia is reflected in the urgency with

69 Cited in Carol Benedict, Bubonic Plague in Nineteenth-Century China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 195 n. 18. 70 71 72

Carol Benedict, Bubonic Plague in Nineteenth-Century China, 29. Carol Benedict, Bubonic Plague in Nineteenth-Century China, 31.

David Arnold, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 126.
73

Karma nges legs bstan dzin phrin las rab rgyas, Si tu sman bsdus e wam, 1: 202-04.

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which Si tu and his students studied and wrote about the treatment of smallpox and other epidemic diseases. This too reminds us of the importance of situating our study of Tibetan medical traditions locally and historically. Although Tibetan scholars produced vast bodies of medical literature that may be understood from various theoretical, rhetorical, or intertextual perspectives, it is also true that these scholars faced the very real threats of disability and death in the bodies of particular people who lived in particular places at particular times.

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Glossary
Note: The glossary is organized into sections according to the main language of each entry. The first section contains Tibetan words organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. Columns of information for all entries are listed in this order: THL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THL Phonetic rendering of the term, the English translation, the Sanskrit equivalent, the Chinese equivalent, other equivalents such as Mongolian or Latin, associated dates, and the type of term.
Ka Wylie karma nges legs Phonetics Karma Ngelek English Other Dates Type Author Author Author

karma nges legs bstan Karma Ngelek Tendzin dzin karma nges legs bstan Karma Ngelek Tendzin Trinl dzin Rapgy phrin las rab rgyas karma pa klu sman klu sman ril bu Karmapa lumen lumen rilbu pills targeted at disease-causing serpent demons

Name generic Term Term

klong gsal snying po dkon rgyal ba bka brgyud bkra shis tshe ring Kha Wylie khams khyi dug khyi smyon khyi smyon bcos pai thabs lag tu blang pai rim pa bzhugs so khrus chu Ga Wylie gu ru chos dbang gu ru phel gong sman dkon mchog bde legs glang thabs gling rgya bod kyi sman bcos

Longsel Nyingpo Kn Gyelwa Kagy Trashi Tsering

Person Person Organization Author

Phonetics Kham khyiduk khyinyn Khyinyn Chp Taplaktu Langp Rimpa Zhukso trchu

English

Other

Dates

Type Place

dog poison mad dog

Term Term Text

empowered water

Term

Phonetics Guru Chwang Guru Pel Gongmen Knchok Delek langtap ling Gya Bkyi Mench

English

Other

Dates

Type

1212-1270 Person Person Person a painful stomach disorder Term Place Text

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rgyud bzhi Nga Wylie dngul chu btso bkru chen mo dngul chu btso chen Cha Wylie cha lag bco brgyad Ja Wylie

Gy Zhi

Four Tantras

Text

Phonetics Nglchu Tsotru Chenmo Nglchu Tsochen

English

Other

Dates

Type Text Text

Phonetics Chalak Chogy

English Eighteen Additional Practices

Other

Dates

Type Text

Phonetics

English

Other

Dates

Type Editor

jam mgon kong sprul Jamgn Kongtrl Lodr Tay blo gros mtha yas jib jip the practice of sucking disease out through the skin

Term

Nya Wylie nyams yig gnyan gnyan nad gnyan nads mnyam nyid rdo rje rnying ma Ta Wylie Phonetics English Collected Works of the Great Tai si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi byun gnas bstan pai nyin byed treasure revealer revealed treasure Other Dates Type Textual Group Phonetics nyamyik nyen nyenn nyen nad Nyamnyi Dorj Nyingma infectious disease English Other Dates Type Term Term Term Term Person Organization

Tai Situpa Knkhyen tai si tu pa kun mkhyen Chkyi Jungn Tenp chos kyi byung gnas Nyinjekyi Kabum bstan pai nyin byed kyi bka bum gter ston gter ma gto gto bcos gtor ma rtogs ldan bstan gyur Da Wylie da cina dar ma mgon po Phonetics Da Chin Darma Gnpo tertn terma to toch torma tokden Tengyur

Term Term Term

exorcism ritual

Term Term

tantric practitioner

Term Title collection

English Great China

Other

Dates

Type Place Person

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bdud rtsi snying po yan lag brgyad pa gsang ba man ngag gi rgyud bdud rtsi bum pa mdos rdo rje gling pa sde dge

Dtsi Nyingpo Yenlak Gyepa Sangwa Menngakgi Gy Dtsi Bumpa d Dorj Lingpa Deg

Text

Text Term Person Place Author

sde dge drung yig gu Deg Drungyik Guru Sde-dge Dru-yig Pel Gu-ru-phel ru phel Na Wylie Phonetics English Instructions for Recognizing Various Medicinal Plants According to the Methods Taught by Si-Tu Pa-Chen Chos-Kyi-Byu-Gnas Other Dates

Type Text

nus pa rkyang sel gyi Npa Kyangselgyi sman ngo Menngo Selj gsal byed

gnubs sangs rgyas ye Nup Sanggy Yesh shes Pa Wylie padma gling pa pe cin dpal spungs Pha Wylie phyag rdor mgon po Phonetics Chakdor Gnpo English Other Dates Phonetics Padma Lingpa Pechin Pelpung Chi. Beijing English Other Dates

Person

Type

1450-1521 Person Publication Place Monastery

Type Person Text Name generic

phyag rdor mgon poi Chakdor Gnp gces btus Chet phyag sman pai lugs chakmenp luk phyi ma rgyud Ba Wylie bu don ma bo dong Phonetics Budnma Bodong English Other Dates Chimagy Concluding Tantra

Text

Type Text Organization Publisher

bod kyi lcags po rii Bkyi Chakpo Ridren Tenlop Nerkhang dran rten slob gner khang bod kyi gso ba rig pai Bkyi Sowa Rikp Nap Chokdrik Petsok gna dpe phyogs bsgrigs dpe tshogs bod ljongs mi dmangs Bjong Mimang Petrnkhang dpe skrun khang

Series

Publisher

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byang bye ba ring gsal

Jang Jewa Ringsel Instructions of the Great Zur-mkhar Myam-id-rdo-rje on Medical Treatment Comprising the Ma yig, Bu yig, and Kha thor Collections

Lineage Text

brang ti dpal ldan tsho byed bla ma

Drangti Penden Tsoj lama

Person Term Author stick therapy Term Organization Organization 1595-1659 Person

blo gsal bstan skyong Losel Tenkyong dbyug bcos bri gung yukch Drigung

bri gung bka brgyud Drigung Kagy bri gung rig dzin chos kyi grags pa Drigung Rindzin Chkyi Drakpa

brug pa bka brgyud Drukpa Kagy brum bcos Drumch Sokgya sogs rgya bod kyi Bkyi Mench Natsok sman bcos sna tshogs Pend Jungn phan bdei byung gnas brum bcos Drumchsok Gya sogs rgya bod kyi Bkyi Mench Natsok sman bcos sna tshogs Pend Jungn phan bde'i 'byung gnas brum nad brong rtse be bum Ma Wylie ma ha tsai na man ngag rgyud man ngag rgyud dang phyi ma rgyud kyi lhan thabs kyi tshul du bkod pa phan bdei nor bui bang mdzod Phonetics Maha Tsena Men Ngak Gy Menngak Gy Dang Chima Gykyi Lhentapkyi Tsldu Kpa Pend Norb Bangdz Concise Instructions for Medical Application Secret Oral Tantra English Other Dates drumn Drongts Bebum smallpox Drongts Scripture

Organization Text

Text

Term Text

Type Place Text Text

man ngag lhan thabs Menngak Lhentap

Text

mantra zhes pai sman Mentra Zhep bcos Mench Kor skor mi gyur rdo rje Migyur Dorj

Text

Author

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mi pham dge legs rnam rgyal mi pham rgya mtsho mi rigs dpe skrun khang sman sgrub sman bsdus e wam

Mipam Gelek Namgyel Mipam Gyatso Mirik Petrnkhang mendrup Mend Ewam medicine empowerment Compendium of Medicine: E and Wam

1618-1685 Person Author Publisher Term Text

Tsa Wylie tsai na btso thal rtsa rgyud Tsha Wylie tshe sgrub Za Wylie za yig zur Phonetics zayik Zur English edible letter Other Dates Type Term Lineage Person 1439-1475 Author Person Person Text Phonetics tsedrup English long-life ceremony Other Dates Type Term Phonetics Tsena tsotel Tsagy Root Tantra English Other Dates Type Place Term Text

zur mkhar nyams nyid Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorj rdo rje zur mkhar mnyam nyid rdo rje zur mkhar pa zur mkhar blo gros rgyal po zla bai rgyal po Ya Wylie yid lhung jam dbyangs yon tan mgon po g.yu thog Phonetics Yilhung Jamyang Ynten Gnpo Yutok English Other Dates Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorj Zurkharpa Zurkhar Lodr Gyelpo Daw Gyelpo

Type Author

1112-1203 Person Person Text Text 1112-1203 Person Yutok Manuscript Text Text

g.yu thog snying thig Yutok Nyingtik g.yu thog sman yig phyogs bsgrigs g.yu thog yon tan mgon po g.yu thog shog dril Yutok Menyik Chokdrik Yutok Ynten Gnpo Yutok Shokdril

g.yu thog shog Yutok Shokdril dril skor gsum gyi ma Korsumgyi Mabu bu don bsdeb tu bkol Dndeptu Klwa ba

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Ra Wylie ra mo shel sman Phonetics Ramo Shelmen English Other Dates Type Person Text

rang gi rnam thar du Ranggi Namtardu byas Jepa Shelkar Melong pa shel dkar me long rang byung rdo rje ratna gling pa rin chen rgya mtsho rin chen gter mdzod chen mo Rangjung Dorj Ratna Lingpa Rinchen Gyatso Rinchen Terdz Chenmo

1284-1339 Person Person Person Title collection 1509-1557 Person

rin chen phun tshogs Rinchen Pntsok Chkyi Gyelpo chos kyi rgyal po rin chen ril nag rin chen ril bu rims rims nad rims nads reg dug La Wylie lung Sha Wylie shog dril skor gsum Phonetics Shokdril Korsum English Other Phonetics lung English authorization transmission Other rekduk sexually transmitted diseases rinchen rilnak rinchen rilbu rim rimn precious black pill precious pills epidemic epidemic disease

Term Term Term Term Term Term

Dates

Type Term

Dates

Type Text Text

shog dril skor Shokdril Korsuml gsum las gser gyi thur Sergyi Turm Demik mai lde mig rnam Namdruk drug bshad rgyud Sa Wylie sangs rgyas rgya mtsho Phonetics Sanggy Gyatso Medicine Buddha English Other Dates Shegy Explanatory Tantra

Text

Type Author Buddhist deity Person

sangs rgyas sman bla Sanggy Menla si tu si tu pa chen Situ Situ Penchen

1700-1774 Person Author

si tu pa chen chos kyi Situ Penchen Chkyi Jungn byung gnas si tu sman bsdus e wam Situ Mend Ewam Compendium of Situs Medicine: E and Wam

Text

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srid gsum gtsug rgyan si tu chos kyi byung gnas kyi zhal lung dngul chu btso chen ril bui sbyor sde zab bdun bdud rtsii thig le

Si Sum Tsuk Gyen Situ Chkyi Jungnekyi Zhellung Nglchu Tsochen Rilb Jord Zapdn Dtsi Tikl

Instructions for the Preparation of Mercury Pellets According to the Teachings of the Great Si-Tu Pa-Chen Chos-Kyi-Byu-Gnas The Expanded Redaction of the Complete Works of Ju Mi-Pham Series

Text

gsung bum: mi pham Sungbum Mipam Gyatso rgya mtsho

Textual Group

gso ba dkar po lam gyi sgron ma

Sowa Karpo Lamgyi Drnma

Text

gso rig sman gyi khog Sorik Mengyi bugs Khokbuk Ha Wylie lha sa A Wylie o rgyan pa o rgyan pa rin chen dpal Sanskrit Wylie Phonetics English Eight Branches Sanskrit agahdayasahit Avatasaka Stra (Chi. Huayan jing) kin maala mantra Padmasambhava Ratnagarbhadhra stra (Chi. Baozang tuoluoni jing) sdhan stpa Chinese Wylie li kyang hu Phonetics Likyanghu English Lijiang Yunnan Chinese Dates Dates Phonetics Orgyenpa Orgyenpa Rinchen Pel English Other Dates Phonetics Lhasa English Other Dates

Text

Type Place

Type Person

1229-1309 Person

Type Text Text Term Term Term Person Text

Term Term

Type Place Place

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