Pharmacopoeia of Tibetan Medicine

by Vaidya Bhagwan Dash

All over the world, three is a growing awareness and interest about the multidimensional and multi-faceted culture including religion, philosophy, art and traditional medicine of Tibet.

Tibetan medicine which is even now practiced in that country and her neigbhourhood has become the center of this interest. For the medical men and scientists, the language barrier and cryptic nature of description, specially with reference to therapeutic remedies have worked as a deterrent. These recipes are lying scattered in different texts and even physicians of Tibetan medicine are facing difficulties in the absence of their compilation and codification. Thus a vast wealth of knowledge accrued through centuries of experience is not being properly utilized for welfare of the suffering humanity.

To overcome this difficulty, 205 popularly used and therapeutically effective recipes from the treasure of Tibetan medicine are compiled and elaborated with reference to their composition, parts of these ingredients and weights in which these are added along with the methods of preparation, indications and dosage.

Of late commercialization of the manufacture of these recipes has created many problems and to overcome them, these recipes should be standardized and a pharmacopoeia is necessary to ensure quality control. Therefore in the introduction of this volume, the problems and methods of standardization and good manufacturing practices to be followed are elaborated. This work will be of immense help to physicians of Tibetan Medicine, Ayurveda and modern medicine, and to scientists and scholars interested in Tibetology and Indology.

About the Author:

Vaidya Bhagawan Dash has had an outstanding brilliant academic career. In addition to graduate and post-graduate qualifications in Ayurveda, he holds a Master's degree in Sanskrit and a Doctorate from University of Delhi. In the course of over thirty years dedicated to research and practice of Ayurveda, Dr. Dash has attended several international conferences and seminars held in Brazil, Mexico, Italy and France, and has written over thirty-eight important publications covering different aspects of Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicines. He was Deputy Adviser in Ayurveda to the Government of India in the Ministry of Health and F.W. till 1981, when he took voluntary retirement to enable him to devote more time for academic and research activities. As a Consultant in Traditional Medicine of the World Health Organisation, he had paid several visits to Bangladesh, Bhuta, Burma and Mongolia to study and advise on the Health Development Programmes of these countries.