HISTORY OF TM IN SAKYA ERA�(1246-1354 )

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�HISTORY OF TM IN PHAGDRUP ERA�(1354-1618)

Dr.Tenzin Tsetan

Over The Counter (OTC) Department

Men-Tsee-Khang

If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.

-Michael Crichton

Rulers of Tibet

Pre-Imperial Yarlung dynasty (127-618)

Tibetan Empire (618-842)

Sakya rulers (1264-1354)

Phagmodrupa dynasty (1354-1618)

Rinpungpa dynasty (1435-1565)

Tsangpa dynasty (1565-1642)

Ganden Phodrang (1642-2011)

ས་སྐྱའི་སྐབས་ཀྱི་གསོ་རིག �Sakya Era (1246-1354) �

• In 1073, Khon Konchog Gyalpo founded the Sakya (meaning “the grey or pale earth”) Monastery.
• His son and successor, Sakya Kunga Nyingpo, formulated the tantric traditions of the great scholars Marpa and Drogme and began the Sakya sect.
• 20 successive Sakya lamas rule Tibet from 1246 to 1354.
• Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen, Drubchen Ugyenpa Rinchen Pel, Karma Rangjung Dorjee, kelden Jipa are some of the most revered medical scholar in that era.

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Sakya monastery in Sakya place

ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། �Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251)

• Born : 1182, Water Tiger year , as Palden Dhondup
• He also ruled Tibet from 1216 to 1251
• He mastered the five great sciences and was greatly influential.
• Prince Godan, the ruling Khan of Mongol, was converted to Buddhism after treating his illness (leprosy ) and thus was the first Tibetan to spread Buddhism in Mongols.  
• His treatise ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པའི་སྙིང་པོ། The essence of 8 branches of TM. (Body as a whole, Pediatric disorders, gynecological disorders, disorders caused by evil spirit, wounds, disorders caused by toxic substances, geriatric disorders and infertility.)
• The book was divided into 6 sections namely the basic concepts, the physiology and anatomy, the diseased condition, healing methods, evacuative methods &

the supplementary steps of former methods.

• Died : 1251 in Lanchou at the age of 70

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�����གྲུབ་ཆེན་ཨུ་རྒྱན་པ་རིན་ཆེན་དཔལ། �Drubchen orgyenpa Rinchenpel(1230-1309)�

• Born :1230 in Dhome province, Death:1309
• The ‘great Tibetan yogi, scholar, alchemist, and traveller.
• He showed signs of great accomplishments in his spiritual practice and attained miraculous healing powers, becoming known for his ability to cure disease.
• He was the first person to have brought the most complex practices of processing mercury by translating “Treatise on Processing Mercury” which was written by a Indian master called Mahāsiddha Vyālipa.
• Mercury was refined and transmitted through various medical and Buddhist schools and developed into a sophisticated technique.
• The final product is a “detoxified” mercury sulphide compound, called “cooked ash” or tsotel .
• This ash compound is added in varied amounts to some of the "precious pills” (rin chen ril bu).
• At the age of 53, he received the full Kagyu lineage teachings, transmissions and oral instructions after becoming the disciple of Karma Pakshi, the 2^nd karmapa.

ཀརྨ་པ་རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ། �Karma Rangjung Dorjee(1284-1339)

• Born : 1284 in Gungthang, Ngari in Tibet
• At the age of five, he went to see Orgyenpa, who recognised him as 3^rd

Karmapa, the reincarnation of 2^nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi

• He had contributed tremendously in the filed of medicine by writing the commentaries on his master’s book of Tsotel and reviving and widely spreading its practice in Tibet which is still in use today.
• His medicinal book “Sabmo Nang Gi Dhon She Jawa” focuses mainly on physiological aspects of our bodily channels and its significant vital role in achieving Buddhahood.
• He also had compiled a Materia Medica book called Ngobum Gyepa Menming Gyatso comprising the characteristics and benefits of 830 herbs and animal derived products.
• Death: 1339 in Beijing, China.

སྐལ་ལྡན་བྱིས་པ། Kalden Jipa

• He was a Terton meaning Treasure Revealer.
• In 13^th century in Guge of Ngari place, a bunch of children playfully dug and opened a stone crate through which they witness a movement of creepy animals.
• Immediately, all the children involved died suspiciously but Jipa mystically survived after escaping with the lid of that crate.
• Subsequently, different types of epidemic broke out in the village and many people and animals succumbed to death.
• With that same magical lid, he made and gave epidemic protecting Chigdril pill, amulets to all and the illness miraculously was stopped.
• Thus this treasure revealer was remembered as Jipa meaning a child.

བྲང་ཏི་གདུང་རྒྱུད། (Drangti clan)

• The Drangti clan originated during the Yarlung dynasty, during the time of Tibet's Eighth King Trisong Detsen.  The clan has been the personal physician of successive kings and has preserved and transmitted their rare knowledges.
• Drangti Jamphel Sangpo (13^th century ) was the first in history to have adopted the Four Tantras and its corpus of supplementary literature from the Yutok school to establish a curriculum for their dissemination at Sakya monastery.
• He along with his two sons (Drangti Gyalwa Sangpo & Drangti Palden Tsojey) succeeded in transitioning the Tibetan medical tradition from controversy, competition, and change, to a narratively unified set of theories and practices that came to be taught at Buddhist institutions throughout Tibet.
• From his time on, the Drangti clan become Sakya clan after repeatedly becoming the lord’s personal physicians and was called “Sakya Mendrongpa” meaning the medicinal worker of Sakya.
• He also drafted in detail about five therapies (purgation , emesis, nasal medication, mild enema and strong enema) which was later passed onto his sons.

• Both of his sons Drangti Gyalwa Sangpo & Drangti Palden Tsojey excelled in their medical theories and practices (Gyushi and its supplementary texts) from early ages and had contributed immensely in the preserving and transmitting the knowledge to the students.
• Drangti Palden Tsojey has written most 18 treatises and commentaries like

ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པའི་ཁོག་འབུགས། (Eight branches ) མདོ་གནས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ། (Basic Summary) རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཁོག་འབུགས་ཤེས་བྱ་རབ་གསལ། (Gyushi) རྩ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་རྒྱུད་དོན་རབ་གསལ། (Root Tantra Commentary) ཕྱི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཚུལ་གསུམ་སྣང་བ། (Subsequent Tantra) རྩ་མདོའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེེར། (Pulse reading)ཆུ་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཚིག་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ། (Urine analysis) བྱང་ཁོག་གི་ཐིག་འགྲེམས་གསལ་སྒྲོན། (Anthropometry) ཐང་ཕྱེའི་འགྲེལ་པ། (Medicinal decoction and powder)

• His Book ཕྱི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་སྨན་སྦྱོར་དཔེ་རིས། was one of the earliest Materia Medica to illustrate morphology of herbs through paintings.

• His grandson Drangti Palden Gyaltsen has successfully compiled in detail about treatment techniques of different conditions in his book

གསེར་བྲེ་དངུལ་བྲེ།

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• It includes the notable Karpo Drukjor which helps in gastric problems like bloating, cramps, vomiting, belching, appetite loss and indigestion.

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• Dhuetsi Yurdren as one such rare and unique practice in the family which was later put in word in their other renown books like Drangti Poetra and Poemar.

ཕག་གྲུའི་སྐབས་ཀྱི་གསོ་རིག � Phagdrup Era (1354-1618)

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A. Thang Tong Gyalpo & other physicians

B. The Two Major Schools of Tibetan Medicine

ཐང་སྟོང་རྒྱལ་པོ། Thang Tong Gyalpo

• Literally as King of the Empty Plain or Madman of the Empty Valley.

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• Born at Ölpa Lhartse, Ngamring County in 1361

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• Known as Chakzampa, the "Iron Bridge Maker" he built around 108 iron bridges to ease travel and pilgrimage though the Himalayas.

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• He was also best known as founder of lhamo or Tibetan opera and has recruit song and dance troupe of seven sisters to raise the money needed to build these bridges.

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• He was a great Buddhist adept, yogi, physician, blacksmith, architect, and a pioneering civil engineer.

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• He has built the foremost foundation for Chagpori medical college and named Men-Gyel-Ri meaning the Medicine king hill.

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• With instructions from Dakinis, he had newly formulated Drubthob Rilkar or Men-Soom as famously called "a medicine for hundred illnesses” and Rilbu Marpo for contagious diseases.
• He was 123 years of age when passed away on 1484 at Riwoche of Kham

བོ་དོང་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ། �Bodong Chogle Namgyal

• Born:1375 in  Yigu, Death: 1451
• He was one of Tibet's most learned and realized masters as well as a most prolific writer. His collected works are in no less than 137 volumes. 
• He has contributed immensely in the field of child’s diseases and treatments which are clearly mentioned in his book chung-ched Pema Che-treng (ཆུང་དཔྱད་པདྨ་གཅེས་ཕྲེང་།)
• He has nurtured many outstanding students of different fields including the 1^st Dalai Lama Gedun Drub and Jangpa Namgyal Draksang, the Founder of Janglug school of medicine.

སྟག་ཚང་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཤེས་རབ་རིན་ཆེན། �Taktsang Lotsawa Sherab Rinchen

• Born: 1405, in Tsang Yeru, died in 1477
• Was a renown was a polymath and excels in all ten field of sciences.
• Five Major Sciences ; craftsmanship (བཟོ་རིག་པ།) logic (གཏན་ཚིགས།)

grammar ( སྒྲ།)medicine (གསོ་བ།) Inner science(ནང་དོན་རིག་པ།)

• Five Minor Sciences; synonyms (མངོན་བརྗོད།) mathematics and astrology (སྐར་རྩིས།)

performance, drama (ཟློས་གར།) poetry (སྙན་ངག) composition (སྡེབ་སྦྱོར།)

• Some of his prominent medical treatises are
• 《སྨན་དཔྱད་ལག་ལེན་གཅེས་བསྡུས》 《གསོ་རིག་སྤྱི་ཡི་རྣམ་བཞག་ལག་ལེན་གཅེས་བསྡུས》- Examination and Treatment Practices in TM
• 《གསོ་དཔྱད་བྱུང་ཚུལ་རྣམ་ཐར་རྒྱས་པ》 《གསོ་རིག་གི་བྱུང་བ་གསང་པོར་བརྗོད་པ་དྲང་སྲོང་སྲིད་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་མདའ》 《རྒྱ་གར་ནག་བོད་སོགས་ལ་གསོ་དཔྱད་སྤྱིར་བྱུང་ཚུལ》 - History of TM
• 《གསོ་རིག་མིང་ཚིག་འགའ་ཞིག་གི་དོན་གྱི་གཞི་རས་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་》- Definitions of Some Tibetan Medical Terms

Two Major Schools Of Tibetan Medicine

Janglug

• Founder: Jangpa Namgyal Draksang
• Place: Jang Ngamring
• Timing: 1395
• Known for its theoretical knowledge
• Toelugs (Upper system)

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Zurlug

• Founder: Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjee
• Place: Lathok Zurkhar
• Timing: 1439
• Known for its practical knowledge
• Melugs (Lower system)

Yuthok Yonten Gonpo

� Reason for the differences in their approach

1. Altitude / Temperature / Moisture
2. Living conditions
3. Habits
4. Herbs and medicinal plants availability

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• Lineage

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བྱང་པ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་གྲགས་བཟང་།�Jangpa Namgyal Draksang (1395-1475)

• Was born as 8^th generation prince of a ruling family of Ngamring district (4380m above sea level)

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• Was a Dharma king with great Buddhist mastery, especially of the Kālacakra tradition

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• Received the title ‘Tai Situ’ from the Ming emperor of China

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• Founder of the Jangpa tradition (Northern) of Tibetan Medicine that flourished between the 15th and 16th centuries and continued locally until the end of the 19th century.

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Ngamring

• Was referred as King Pandita who authored 42 treatises like :
• ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྡུས་པ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ། -The Essence of Eight Branches in TM (1)
• རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་བཤད་པ་རྒྱུད་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་སྒྲོན་མེ། -The commentary on Root (1^st )Tantra
• བཤད་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་བ་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན།- The commentary on Explanatory (2^nd )Tantra (3)
• ཕྱི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ་དགོས་འདོད་ཀུན་འབྱུང་། - The commentary on Subsequent (4^th )Tantra
• ཡོངས་གཏད་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བ་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་གསལ་བ།-The Commentary on Entrustment of four Tantra (2)
• གསོ་ཐབས་སུམ་བརྒྱ་དྲུག་བཅུའི་ངོས་འཛིན།- The Identification of 360 Healing Methods
• སྲོག་གཅོད་ནད་དགུའི་དབྱེ་བ། - The Categories of Nine Fatal Diseases
• འཚོ་བྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་སྙིང་ནས་བརྩེ་བའི་མན་ངག་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཡིག་ཆུང་།-Heartfelt Magical Manuscripts for Doctors

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His Disciples

1. Mi'i Nyima Thong-wa Donden

• A.K.A Jampa Kunchok Rinchen
• 14^th century
• Main disciple in all field with a compassionate mind
• Has travelled India to meet Indian scholars like Pandita Vanaratna
• Other teachers like Drangti Palden Tsojey, lotsawa SonamGyatso
• Greatly admired by Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjee for his great wisdom
• Had written books like
• གནས་ལུགས་རབ་གསལ། Anatomical structure of body
• རྩ་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། Pulse analysis
• གཅེས་བཏུས་རིན་ཆེན་འཕྲེང་བ། Precious Garland Quintessence
• རིམས་བཅོས་མི་ལ་སྲོག་སྦྱིན། Infectious Disease
• ཁྱད་འཕགས་སྤྱི་སྨན། Extraordinary General medicine
• Was hailed as the holder and main flourisher of doctrine of Jangpa Namgyal Draksang.

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His Disciples

2. Sonam Yeshi Gyalten

• Grandson of Mi'i Nyima
• Was the visiting physician of Rinpungpa Head
• Renown Explanatory Tantra commentary

(འགྲེལ་ཆེན་དྲི་མེད་ཀུན་གསལ།)

• Meticulously discussed and debated on sources, identification, features, colours, definition, categorization, hot & cold place, sizes of the herbal
• Thus compiled all the details in his book

(སྔོ་འབུམ་སྨན་གྱི་གཏེར་མཛོད།)

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3. Lhundhing clan

• Nine famous physician of Tibetan Medicine ;
• upper region- Cherji Shigpo, Oogpa Choesang, Biji Legon Sum
• Mid region- Yuthok Yonten Gonpo, Minyag Rongje, Drangti Gyalsang
• Lower region- Nyawa Choesang, Thashi Dharpo, Tingpa Drakgyal
• They were the descendant of Nyawa Choesang
• Lhundhing Dhuetsi Gyurme has pointed out the gist of Gyushi in his notable treatise (གསོ་བ་རིག་པའི་གཞུང་རྒྱུད་དོན་སྙིང་པོ་དགོས་འདོད་ཀུན་འབྱུང་།

གོང་སྨན་ནང་མི། Gongmen Family

མན་ངག་པོ་ཏི་དམར་པོ། སྟོད་ཆ།

The red volume of Instruction

མན་ངག་ཡིག་ཆུང་སྣ་ཚོགས། Various Small Instructions

གསོ་རིག་དགོས་པ་ཀུན་འབྱུང་། སྨད་ཆ།

གསོ་རིག་དགོས་པ་ཀུན་འབྱུང་། སྟོད་ཆ།

མན་ངག་པོ་ཏི་དམར་པོ། སྨད་ཆ།

The red volume of Instruction

Gongmen Kunchok Delek (15^th Century)

Gongmen Kunchok Phendar(16^th century)

• Although, Gongmen Kunchok Delek practice Janglug but became follower of Drangti tradition.
• He has written several other books on Urine and Pulse reading, medicinal plants, formulation on the basis of taste and power.
• His grandson Gongmen Kunchok Phendar also worked on Mercury detoxification, precious pills and experiential instructions.

ཟུར་མཁར་མཉམ་ཉིད་རྡོ་རྗེ། �Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjee(1439‐1475) 

• Was born in lathok Zurkhar of kongpo county.(2,500 m above sea level)
• Was the founder of Zurlug (Southern) tradition of TM
• At the age of 16, he wrote currently well revered and used literary work མན་ངག་བྱེ་བ་རིང་བསྲེལ། with 416 chapters.
• It provides detailed quintessential instructions on history, the basic concepts, the practical experiences, formulations, and preventions of TM.
• Grouped under three main topics:
• Diagnostic Methods
• Healing Methods
• The Supplementary Topics

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Kongpo

His Four Famous Direct Disciples

• Migyur Tsetan – Accomplished in transmitted instruction
• Trakwon Sonam Tashi- Accomplished in Medical activities
• Khempa Tsebum Dorjee –Accomplished in Practice
• Lichung Pema Kyab- Accomplished in Teaching

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• Khempa Tsewang, the direct disciple of Khempa Tsebum Dorjee has compiled one of the most currently referred commentaries for all 4 Tantras.

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• སྨྲ་བའི་མཆོག་ཐོབ། - Root Tantra commentary
• ཚིག་དོན་ཉི་མ། - Explanatory Tantra commentary
• བདེ་བའི་འདོད་འཇོ། -Oral Tantra commentary -2^nd volume
• ལག་ལེན་གསལ་བྱེད། - Subsequent Tantra commentary- 3^rd volume

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1^st volume

Zurkhar Lodoe Gyalpo (1509‐1572)

• Was 16^th century Zurkhar descendant

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• He derived his vast medical knowledge not only from the works of

his ancestor but also from tradition of Jangpa, Drangti and

Gongmen.

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• He was known as the first physician to put the Gyushi (Four Tantras), the fundamental and authentic text of TM into wooden manuscript called Dathang Gyushi thanks to which we can enjoy strong foundation in today’s understanding.

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• He has contributed immensely in deeper understanding of Gyushi by completing its commentaries of 1^st two Tantras in མེས་པོའི་ཞལ་ལུང་། (Oral instructions of forefathers) and sadly passed away from an illness after merely completing draft on Pulse analysis.

Oral instructions of forefathers

མེས་པོའི་ཞལ་ལུང་། སྟོད་ཆ། Oral instructions of forefathers (1^st Volume)

མེས་པོའི་ཞལ་ལུང་། སྨད་ཆ། Oral instructions of forefathers (2^nd Volume)

Author: Zurkhar Lodoe Gyalpo

(16^th Century)

Author: Dharmo Lobsang choedak (17^th century)