Traditional Tibetan Medicine

Tibetan medicine, an important part of the Chinese medical tradition, has been evolving for nearly 3,000 years. During the third century BC, a primitive medical system had existed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, comprising theories on daily life, food and drink, and health care. Although a complete medical theory had not yet formed, simple therapies were used such as blood-letting, massage, using butter to stop bleeding, and using distillers' grains from highland barley to treat wounds. They had also hypothesized that "toxins and medicines co-exist."

During the 7th century, Tibetan King Songtsan Gambo united the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and established the Tubo Kingdom. He invited medical experts and translators from neighboring states, together with medical experts of Tibet, to compile medical classics such as A Complete Collection of Medical Works, Fearless Weapons, Medicine and Diagnosis of Moon King, and Four Medical Classics. He encouraged Tibetan medical researchers to incorporate Indian and Han Chinese medical principles into their work. These efforts promoted the development of traditional Tibetan medicine and laid a solid foundation in the fields of physiology, diagnosis, and treatment.

In around 1450, two contradictory schools of thought-northern and southern-arose. Each school had it own views concerning prescription methods and the Four Medical Classics. This conflict in ideas marked a new stage in the development of traditional Tibetan medicine. Sukar, a representative of the southern school, and his disciples conducted research on diseases caused by dampness in southern Tibet. They based their studies on the Four Medical Classics and created a unique theoretical system for diagnosis and medication. They wrote more than ten representative medical works. Qamba and Namgyai Zhabsang were representative figures of the northern school. They conducted research on diseases caused by the cold climate in northern Tibet and based their work upon the Four Medical Classics. They wrote more than ten representative medical works. The contention between the northern and so/uthern schools of thought greatly promoted the development of traditional Tibetan medicine.

Between 1600 and 1959, traditional Tibetan medicine developed slowly, without any dynamism. But after the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the Party and the central government have been aiding the development of Tibetan medicine. After China adopted economic reform policies in 1978, traditional Tibetan medicine has rapidly developed. Research centers have been established in Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Scihuan. Provincial-level hospitals and pharmaceutical production bases have been set up in Tibet and Qinghai. Also, prefecture medical organizations have been established in Sichuan, Gansu, Tibet and Qinghai. Traditional Tibetan medicine is being standardized.

"Theory of Three Factors"

Traditional Tibetan medicine is based on the "theory of three factors." The theory centers around the "seven substances" and "three excrements" of the human body. The three factors are lung, chiba, and peigen; the seven substances include diet, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and seminal fluid; and the three excrements are sweat, urine and stool. When a person is in good health, the relations between the three factors, seven substances and three excrements are in good balance. Keeping balance is an important principle of traditional Tibetan medicine.

Traditional Tibetan medicine is based on traditional Tibetan culture and thus incorporates life science (combination of heaven, earth and human beings) into its theories. Traditional Tibetan medicine differs from medical traditions of other ethnic groups and modern medicine.

Four Medical Classics

His annotations on the Four Medical Classics are the most authoritative. He made a series of hanging charts on the Four Medical Classics and established a medical school to train doctors. Other well-known Tibetan doctors include Kyenrab Norbu, Gyiba Cewang, Budong, and Qamba Chinlai.

Representative Brand Names of Tibetan Medicines

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau produces more than 3,000 different medicinal materials of traditional Tibetan medicine.

After China adopted reform policies in 1978, the central government invested 200 million yuan in two large, modern pharmaceutical plants in Tibet and Qinghai equipped with advanced facilities. More than 20 pharmaceuticals produced by these plants were listed in the 1995 edition of the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China.

Representative patent medicines include "72-ingredient pearls," "25-ingredient Pearl Pills," "70-ingredient Coral," "Ruyi Zhenbao Pill," and "20-ingredient Agalloch Eaglewood Pill" for treating heart and brain diseases and disorders; "Rinqen Changjue," "5-ingredient Pomegranate Pill" for treating stomach and intestine diseases, and medicines for treating liver and bone diseases. Four patent medicines, including "70-ingredient Pearl" and "25-ingredient Turquoise Pill," have obtained certificates from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Qizheng-brand "Xiaotongtie" (Pain-Killing Plaster) produced by the Qizheng Tibetan Pharmaceutical Group won a gold medal at the World Invention Exposition held in Geneva.

Education and Scientific Research

Before the liberation, traditional Tibetan medicine was taught in major temples and hospitals in Lhasa. Education techniques were traditional, and the number of trainees were limited. But since the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the training situation has been improving. School have been set up throughout the region. In 1983, a secondary school of traditional Tibetan medicine was established in Tibet Autonomous Region. In 1985, the Department of Traditional Tibetan Medicine was set up at the University of Tibet, and in 1989 the College of Traditional Tibetan Medicine was established, the first higher education school of Tibetan medicine. Tibetan medicine schools in Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan where Tibetans live in compact communities have trained more than 3,000 doctors.

Publishing houses in Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan have published more than 50 medical titles including Four Medical Classics, Jingzhu Materia Medica, Blue Glaze, and the New Collection of Traditional Tibetan Medicine. In the mid-1980s, well-known traditional Tibetan medicine experts from Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan, gathered in Lhasa to compile textbooks on clinical practics, internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, five sense organs, prescriptions, pathology, and diagnosis. In the early 1990s, textbooks for university and secondary students were compiled, and basic theories of modern medical science and diagnosis were added.

Scientific Tibetan medicine research has been gradually spreading. In Traditional Tibetan medicine centers in Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu, research and development have been conducted in the fields of historical document research, Tibetan medicine uses, diagnosis techniques, and pharmaceutical production. The Hospital of Traditional Tibetan Medicine of Tibet Autonomous Region and the People's Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region work together to improve treatment of chronic atrophic gastritis. Patients take pharmacist-prepared Tibetan medicines and doctors used modern pathological methods to check results. The hospitals' cooperation has won a third-class prize for scientific and technological progress from the Ministry of Public Health. The two hospitals and experts from the pharmacological research institute of Huaxi Medical University jointly conducted research on medicinal herbs unique to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, including rhodiola, Chinese caterpillar fungus and Drosera peltata. Lab tests indicate that these plants contain anti-aging compounds as well as anti-oxidants. In addition, more than ten pharmacist-prepared Tibetan medicines have been found to have anti-bacterial inflammation reducing functions.

More than ten cities in the interior have set up Tibetan medicine centers. One of the largest is the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Tibetan Medicine. Over the past few years, the hospital has received nearly 200,000 patients. The hospital plays a decisive role in publicizing traditional Tibetan medicine.

Medical Care in Tibet Today

　　Urban and Rural Medical Care Network. There were only two small-scale, simply equipped government-operated medical institutions in old Tibet, and they were both located in Lhasa. Today a medical care network is beginning to take shape throughout the length and breadth of Tibet. In 1998 the region had 1,004 medical institutions, 6,512 hospital beds, and 8,087 professionally trained medical and health personnel. For every 1,000 people, there were 2.67 hospital beds, 2.09 doctors and 0.7 nurses. Medical and health institutions above the county level are equipped with commonly used medical facilities. Hospitals in most counties have X-ray machines, ECO machines, ultrasonic diagnostic equip-ment, operating tables, astral lamps, multi-use surgical kits and ambulances, and some counties also have B-type ultra-sonic diagnostic equipment and fiber gastroscopies.
　　Preventing and Curing Diseases. The regional government puts prevention first in medical work and has strengthened work towards universal examination, treatment and prevention of epidemic and endemic diseases. Beginning in the early 1960s smallpox was entirely eliminated and the incidence of a wide variety of other epidemic and endemic diseases decreased considerably. More than 88 percent of chronic active brucelliasis cases have been treated effectively through hospitalization and treatment, and incidence of morbidity and sources of epidemic infection have been essentially brought under control. The incidence of endemic goiter has dropped below 8 percent as measured by sample surveys following the introduction of iodized table salt and orally taken iodipin capsules. Medical research institutes have also made breakthroughs in the study of altitude sickness and other harmful conditions. When it comes to saving and treat-ing those afflicted with altitude-produced pulmonary edema, comas and chronic altitude sickness, Tibetan medical workers lead the world.
   Scheduled immunization work began in the 1980s. Sin-ce 1986 children throughout the region have been receiving BCG vaccine, sugar-coated anterior poliomy-elitis pills, combined anti-pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus drugs and measles vaccination; the child immunization rate is 85 percent. Since the implementation of scheduled immunization, infectious disease morbidity and mortality rates have dropped by a considerable margin. Currently, there are more than 80 anti-epidemic stations and centers regionwide. Women and chil-dren9s health work has been similarly strengthened: 34 ma-temity and child care stations have been set up throughout the region, 108 hospitals at and above the county level have gynecology and obstetrics departments, and 110 key town-ships have maternity and child care clinics. Cervicitis, vaginitis and adnexitis and other conditions harmful to the health of Tibetan women are being efficaciously prevented and treated. Currently, 50.8 percent of babies are being delivered using new methods (100 percent in Lhasa). The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 500 per 10,000 in 1959 to 70 per 10,000 today and the infant mortality rate from 91.8 per 1,000 in 1959 to 41.62 per 1,000 in 1989.
   Overall, free government-supplied medical services are available for Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. Every year increased funding goes to free medical care, raising the standard of such care given to people in rural areas. From 1992 to 1997, the Central Government and the Tibet regional government spent a total of 964.61 million yuan on health work. The government assumes the cost of all serious diseases that require hospitalization and costs of operations. Farmers and herdsmen are responsible for a portion of their medical expenses varying with their financial capacity.
　　Tibetan Medicine. The regional government supplied capital for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region Hospital of Tibetan Medicine and six prefectural-level hospitals of Tibetan medicine, an addition of more than 350 hospital beds for patients receiving Tibetan medical treatment. Some counties have hospitals of Tibetan medicine and most county-level hospitals have a Tibetan medicine department with its own hospital beds. Every year, over 500,000 people seek medical treatment in these hospitals. A college and a research institute of Tibetan medicine have been established to continue and develop this traditional medical art. The government encourages veteran doctors of Tibetan medicine to write books summarizing their precious experiences. The famous Four- Volume Medical Code has been published in a new edition along with scores of newly compiled or written teaching materials and treatises including The Complete Four-Volume Medical Code Wall Chart Series, the '~Tibetan Medicine " volume of the Encyclopedia of Medicine, Tibetan Medicine Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Bro-matology, and the New Compilation of Tibetan Medicine. In recent years research specialists in Tibetan medicine has qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed more than 1,000 plants used in Tibetan medicine to determine their specific name, pharmacological components, functions and effects, and their proper use and dosage, with the result that Tibetan medicine has become more standardized and scientific. At present, there are three fairly large factories producing Tibe-tan pharmaceuticals. In addition, some prefectural- and coun-ty-level Tibetan medicine hospitals and Tibetan medicine departments in other hospitals themselves have the capacity to produce Tibetan pharmaceuticals. The particular efficacy of traditional Tibetan patent medicines such as Tsodru 70 Ingredients, Tsodru Tashel, Yunying 25 Ingredients and Chan-gior in treating common and stubborn illnesses has been proven through modern laboratory analysis and clinical observation. Combined treatment with Tibetan and Western medicine has produced cures in 73 percent of chronic atrophic gastritis cases.