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MAINEXPLANATIONPRACTICECOMMENTARYARTICLESCLINICAL RESOURCESDEDICATION
These pages are dedicated to giving a voice to practitioners and students of Tibetan medicine. There are by now many pages on the webdevoted to Tibetan medicine, but few are written from the uniquelyinformed point of view of those who have dedicated years to its study and practice. InTibetan medicine it is thought that all suffering (and therefore all illness) results from ignorance. We can then safely assume that education is one way to reduce ignorance and its results. I hope a point of view informed by study and practice can benefit all those who are interested in Tibetan medicine and what it has to teach about health and the causes of illness.INTRODUCTIONWith the recent explosion of fascination with Tibet and Tibetan culture, Tibetan medicine is receiving greater attention from the public, scholars and the media. As with many aspects of Tibetan culture, significant and complex issues determine whether or not Tibetan medicine will continue to survive as a living tradition. As Tibetan medicine becomes more accessible in the U.S., it is importantto realize that there is a significant difference between Tibetan medicine and the other rich information and knowledge which the Tibetan people havealready communicated to the West. Whereas religion, culture, and politicscan be freely disseminated here under our First Amendment, the conditionsunder which medicine can be practiced in this country are limited by ourculture, science, economics and law.HISTORYBy synthesizing knowledge from various medical systems, Tibetans created a approach to medicalscience drawn from thousands of years of accumulated empirical knowledgeand intuition about the nature of health and illness. Centuriesago, before Buddhism entered Tibet, Tibetans like all ancient people hada significant degree of medical knowledge. According to traditional sources,in the beginning of the 4th century many new ideas regarding medicinebegan to enter the country. At first influences came from India inthe form of what is now called Ayurvedic medicine, as well as morespiritual and psychologically based systems from Buddhist and othersources. Around the 7th-8th centuries the Tibetan government begansponsoring conferences where doctors skilled in the medical systems ofChina, Persia, India and Greece presented and debated their ideasregarding health and the treatment of illness. Those with superiorabilities in the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of illness wereinvited to stay and contribute to the country's medical knowledgebase. In the 11th century, this knowledge was codified into aunique system containing a synthesis of the principals of physical andpsychological medicine imbued with a Buddhist spiritual understanding. This understanding formed a foundation for Tibetan medicine and benefited patients and doctors alike. It acknowledged how health and illnessresulted both from the relationship between the mind and the body andpeople's connectedness to the natural world and sense of spirituality.For a Biography of the Author:Eliot TokarCorrespondence:etokar@aol.com[Home][Explanation] [Practice][Commentary][Articles][Clinical Resources]Copyright 1998, Eliot TokarSite design by Jason Wiener,1998.| --BEGIN VALIDATION CODE-- P wRsViUx OiDmH vCiSaN mIyIcPnWvKlVvOsHpU dCxPpX rNtQcSqT vXyV f M rMnV qSgWpTbYoL cG qHtKjN bKyGtKf KjUhX n ObVuF rFxWwWeJg ZuMtKhIyW pE cKoL sJlP n R xKxGcK rYbNaNwZ qOnFkEoEnOzWxVzG zJwS eSyLqXzM rK kBcRv CpYqF mSwJpXuThQpTlJfVmJaP kVyTpUrKqD cM nVr WdKlDdYuHuFmKjHsGcMeMvBpZxCjEuRyQxQlO dTvCqRzSsXsV hohositeX2006 --END VALIDATION CODE-- |
