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Introduction to Tibetan Medicine
The Medicine Encyclopedia addresses aspects of Tibetan medicine as practiced and studied today in Lhasa, Tibet. Most videos were filmed at the Hospital of Tibetan Medicine (the Mentsikhang, sman rtsis khang), in Lhasa. Some of the hospital’s most distinguished doctors lectured for us on various topics and demonstrated techniques of diagnosis and therapeutics in Tibetan medical practice. We are grateful to them for their generous collaborative spirit.
The Mentsikhang has several branches in Lhasa: an in-patient hospital on Nyangre Road, an out-patient hospital near the Barkor neighborhood’s Jokhang temple, and a factory where medicines are made. We have recorded videos at each of these locations, as well as at a few small neighborhood clinics around Lhasa. Most videos from the Lhasa out-patient Mentsikhang have been organized according to the physicians’ area of medical specialty; thus, for example, there are video sub-series focus on liver disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, and musculoskeletal disorders. Other series focus on the making of medicines in the factory, the history of medicine, and the practice of special rituals to consecrate medicinal substances.