| Tibetan Medicine and it's Study in Buryatia | |
The traditional Tibetan medicine is a part of the unique cultural heritage of Oriental peoples. As a unified system it was formed in VII-VIII centuries after involving the experience of the medical systems of India, Chins, Persia, Nepal and the Mediterranean countries.
The traditional Tibetan medicine is a part of the unique cultural heritage of Oriental peoples. As a unified system it was formed in VII-VIII centuries after involving the experience of the medical systems of India, Chins, Persia, Nepal and the Mediterranean countries.
In XVI-XVII centuries the penetration of Buddhism into Mongolia and then into Buryatia gave rise to the spreading of Tibetan medicine here as a part of the Buddhist religious, social and cultural complex. Medical schools were springing up, where the basic treatises were reprinted as well as new original works, accumulating the practical experience of the Buryat lamas physicians, were created.
1300 plant remedies, 114 minerals and metals, 150 medicines from animals were described in the rGyud-bzhi and Vaidurya-sngonpo, the fundamental treatises of Tibetan medicine. These remedies are multicomponent (consisting of 3 to 25 components) and are used in the different medicinal forms: powders, decoctions, syrup, extracts and liniments.
Nowadays endeavours to revive and use in practice the achievements of Tibetan medicine are undertaken in Buryatia. Since 1975 the studies of the sources of Tibetan medicine and investigations of the pharmacological properties of the remedies are carried out in the Buryat Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Siberian Department). Besides, the Centre of Oriental Medicine has been established, where the findings of scientific studies are used in practice.
The main directions of the research carried out by the Traditional medicine department of the Institute of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences are as follows: the study, the translation and the publications of original sources in European languages, the chemical and pharmacological investigation of the raw materials for medicines and making the medicines as well, pharmacological investigation of the way the medicines affect the human organism, the clinical research with tests and practical use of the new effective methods of treatment.
The members of the staff of the department have done the first translations from Tibetan of "The Atlas", "rGyud-bzhi" and the "Vaidurya-sngonpo". On the basis of ancient recipes a number of remedies have been created and recommended for practical use.
The Centre of the Oriental medicine of the Buryat Ministry of Health was organized in February 1989.
The main directions of activities:
The Centre includes polyclinic with a capacity of 150 visits a day, a hospital for 30 patients, an immunological laboratory, a scientific and production department, a drugstore for herbal medicines.
There is also a handicraft shop making medical instruments, adornments of precious and semi-precious stones and metals with healing effect.
The specialists of the Centre apply the unique methods of the Oriental traditional medicine, the achievements of modern science as well as the experience of practicing physicians.
The treatment is done on the basis of the complex diagnostics using: the pulse diagnostics, the cochlea and the iris diagnostics, the acupuncture points in Foll and Su Jok methods alongside with the conventional investigation methods of modern medicine.
New holistic approaches to the problems of human health and of man's interconnection with the environment are being developed.
Various non-medicinal methods of treatment are applied by the qualified doctors of the Centre: acupuncture, moxabation, phlebotomy, biocorrection, manual therapy, Ushu and Chigoon training, points and contactless massage, Tibetan baths, the methods of cleaning the organism and weight correction.
Emchi-lamas (doctors) and therapeutists-tibetologists prescribe medicines made according to original Tibetan recipes.
Patients of the Center receive individual treatment and recommendations for preventing diseases, healthy way of life, diet, physical activity, improving and supporting health.