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Created by the Center for Spirituality & Healing and Charlson Meadows.

Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing

Tibetan Medicine
Tibetan medicine consists of philosophy, science, and healing
practices that can help create and maintain a healthy mind and body.
The Tibetan name for this holistic healing system is Sowa Rigpa, which
means the science of healing.

What is the history of Tibetan medicine?

Tibetan medicine has roots in the ancient, indigenous culture of Tibet.
In the 8th century, the first ever international conference about Tibetan
medicine was held at Samye Monastery in Tibet. Physicians from
India, China, Persia, and other areas attended. Most historians believe
that after the conference, Elder Yuthok Yonten Gonpo, an eminent
Tibetan doctor, synthesized the best theories and medical practices
into the Gyueshi, the fundamental text of Tibetan medicine. The first
Tibetan medical college was established in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1696. In
the early 1900s, the two major medical schools in Lhasa were the
Chagpori Medical College and the Men-Tsee-Khang (Tibetan Medical
and Astrological Institute).

Related Pages
Traditional Chinese
Medicine
Ayurvedic Medicine
Yoga

Choosing Integrative
In 1961, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama re-established the MenHealthcare
Tsee-Khang in Dharamsala, India. This medical college educates posthigh-school students during a six-year intensive program to become a
doctor of Tibetan medicine. After graduating, the new doctors work
under the supervision of senior doctors. You can learn more about the
history and practices of Tibetan medicine in a book published by the Men-Tsee-Khang listed in the
Where Can I Get More Information? section (Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine, 2009).

What is the philosophy of Tibetan medicine?

Tibetan medicine teaches that the purpose of life is to be happy. By using Tibetan medicine for self-care,
you will become aware of how your thoughts and behaviors influence your health and happiness. Tibetan
medicine can be part of any program of integrative healthcare.
According to Tibetan medicine:
Health is balance and dis-ease is imbalance.
Tibetan medicine is different from conventional Western medicine because it emphasizes finding and

treating imbalance as the first step toward healing and health. Dis-ease or imbalance can be present well
before physical symptoms appear or before symptoms are so severe that you seek attention from a
conventional health professional.
Treating illness requires correcting the underlying imbalance.
So the goals of treating dis-ease are not about covering up a symptom or reacting to a single
abnormality. Instead, each symptom and sign of dysfunction sheds light on the overall pattern of
imbalance. Healing negative thinking and making healthy lifestyle choices can restore balance in your
body and mind.
Wellbeing is a lifelong process of living in harmony with your unique nature or constitution.
Tibetan medicine teaches that all living beings are made up of energy. You were born with a unique
nature or constitution consisting of three primary energies: loong, tripa, and baekan. Loong is movement
energy. Tripa is hot energy. Baekan is cold energy. Tibetan medicine is the art and science of keeping
your primary energies in balance with your constitution in order to promote your health and happiness.
Your unique constitution has both strengths and weaknesses. By learning about your constitution, you
can enhance your strengths and turn your weaknesses into assets, or at least keep them from
sabotaging you.

What are the underlying principles of Tibetan medicine?

Tibetan medicine teaches four basic
principles:
Karma refers to the universal law of
cause and effect. Your individual
behavior affects you, other people, and
the environment. Sometimes your
choices have an immediate and
obvious effect, and sometimes the
effects are not so obvious at first, or will
affect you much later in a roundabout
way. For example, choosing to eat a
sugary cereal for breakfast may have
both the immediate effect of pleasure
(from satisfying a sweet tooth) and a
delayed consequence of sluggishness
and decreased metabolism in the
afternoon. Tibetan medicine teaches
the importance of being aware of both the immediate and long-term consequences of your choices
so that you learn to choose what promotes health and happiness.
Suffering, which can be physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional, is a universal condition of human
life. In fact, most of human life is spent trying to avoid suffering or to relieve suffering in one form or
another. Physical pain is not the same as suffering, although both can be present together. Tibetan
medicine teaches that suffering results from interpreting life in a negative way.
Healing, according to Tibetan medicine, results from creating a healthy mind and making lifestyle
choices that bring your primary energies back into balance with your inborn constitution.
Happiness is not simply temporary pleasures and accomplishments. True happiness is lasting
peace, meaning, integrity, and wellbeing that result from positive thinking and balanced living.

How is Tibetan medicine different from Ayurveda, Chinese

medicine, and yoga?
Tibetan medicine is similar to other holistic healing systems, such as Ayurveda, a traditional healing
system from India, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, a healing system from China. All three traditions
teach the importance of living a balanced life. Moreover, each tradition describes characteristics of the
physical world and physiology in terms of hot energy and cold energy. However, Tibetan medicine is
closest to Ayurveda in principle and in practice. Both Tibetan medicine and Ayurveda teach that you are
composed of three primary energies: movement energy (loong/vata), hot energy (tripa/pitta), and cold
energy (baekan/kapha). In contrast, Chinese medicine only has two energies: hot energy (yang) and
cold energy (yin). Tibetan medicine and Ayurveda use different terms, but their understanding of the
three primary energies is similar.
Yoga, another ancient healing system from India, is an important part of Tibetan medicine. Yoga is a way
of life that cultivates union within oneself and with everything. Tibetan medicine, like Ayurveda, explains
how to create and maintain a healthy body and mind in order to live a yogic way of life. Yogis in Tibet
developed Tibetan Yoga, a form of yoga that focuses on breathing, purifying exercises, and healing the
mind.

+ References
Expert Contributor: Miriam Cameron, PhD, MS, MA, RN; Tenzin Namdul, DTMS, BA, PHCcc; Katharine
O. Swenson, MD, MS, RN
Reviewed by: Tashi Lhamo, DTMS, RN

HEALING PRACTICES a-z

Choosing Integrative Healthcare

Acupuncture
Aromatherapy
Ayurvedic Medicine
Biofeedback
Botanical Medicine
Breathwork
Chinese Herbs
Chiropractic
Clinical Hypnosis
Craniosacral Therapy

about healing practices +

Creative Therapies
Cupping
Dermal Friction
Dietary Therapies
Food As Medicine
Healing Environment
Healing Touch
Holistic Pregnancy & Childbirth
Homeopathy
Imagery
Intuition in Healthcare
Massage Therapy
Mind-Body Therapies
Mindful Movement
Mindfulness
Moxibustion
Naturopathy
Osteopathic Medicine
Prayer
Qigong
Reflexology
Reiki
Shamanism
Shiatsu
Social Support
Therapeutic Touch
Tibetan Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Tui na
Yoga

CONDITIONS a-z

choosing integrative healthcare +

Anxiety
Arthritis
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Back Pain
Cancer
Childbirth
Depression
Diabetes
End of Life and Hospice Care
Headaches
Heart Disease
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Menopause
Migraines
Pregnancy

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