Tree of physiology
The tree of physiology is a Tibetan thangka depicting human physiology and certain pathological transformations.
Epistemology
Tibetan medicine had developed a rather sophisticated knowledge of anatomy and physiology, which was acquired from their long-standing experience with human dissection. Tibetans out of necessity, had long ago adopted the practice of celestial burial (also Sky burial) because of Tibet's harsh terrain in most of the year and deficit of wood for cremation. This form of Sky burial, still practiced, begins with a ritual dissection of the deceased, and then followed by the feeding of the parts to vultures on the hill tops. Both the location of the ritual dissection and the place of feeding is understood as the charnel ground. Over time, anatomical knowledge found its way into Ayurveda[1] and to a lesser extent into China. As result, Tibet has become a home of the Buddhist medical centers Chogppori and Menchikhang (or Menhang),[2][3] between the twelfth to sixteenth century A.D., where monks came to study even from foreign countries.
Fisher donation
Emily Fisher, a trustee at The American Museum of Natural History, donated modern copies of a series of seventy-nine Tibetan Buddhist tangkas (religious paintings) that were originally commissioned in 1687 by the fifth Dalai Lama's regent, Sangye Gyamtso (1653-1705).[4] He had the paintings done to elucidate his commentary on the "Four Tantras" (Tib. Gyushi)[5] - eighth-century Tantric Buddhist texts that form the foundation of Tibetan medicine and cover physiology, pathology, diagnosis, and cure. With such depictions, the Tantric Buddhist system of healing[6] could, according to Sangye Gyamtso, be "perceived by everybody, from the scholar to the child, as dearly as one would see a myrobalan[7][8] (the foremost healing plant in the Tibetan tradition) held in the palm of one's hand."
Art history
The original set of these thangkas, which were kept in Lhasa, were destroyed by the Chinese military in 1959, but these recent copies, based on three surviving sets, were painted over the course of seven years by Nepalese atelier Romio Shrestha,[9] who followed religious and artistic conventions in copying the seventeenth-century originals. Shrestha's paintings on cloth, which are filled with astonishing renditions of a variety of physical conditions and illnesses, have been digitally photographed and incorporated into the Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology's image database.
See also
- Ayurveda
- Eliot Tokar
- Sangye Gyamtso
- Tibetan art
- Traditional Chinese medicine
- Traditional Mongolian medicine
- Traditional Tibetan medicine
References
- ^ The Roots of Ayurveda (Penguin Classics) by Various and Dominik Wujastyk (2003)
- ^ His Holiness the Dalai Lama: The Oral Biography by Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober (2005) p.14
- ^ Tao & Dharma: Chinese Medicine & Ayurveda by Robert Svoboda and Arnie Lade (1995) p.89
- ^ Dorje, Gyurme; Parfionovitch, Yuri; Meyer, Fernand (1992). Tibetan Medical Paintings: Illustrations to the Blue Beryl Treatise of Sangye Gyamtso. London: Serindia / Harry N Abrams. ISBN 0810938618.
- ^ The Quintessence Tantras of Tibetan Medicine by Barry Clark (1995)
- ^ Tibetan Book of Healing by Lobsang Rapgay (2005)
- ^ Eating And Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine (Crop Science) (Crop Science) by Andrea Pieroni and Lisa Leimer Price (2006) pp.346-7
- ^ Tao & Dharma: Chinese Medicine & Ayurveda by Robert Svoboda and Arnie Lade (1995) p.90
- ^ The Tibetan Art of Healing by lan Baker, Dalai Lama, Romio Shrestha, and Deepak Chopra (1997)
- v
- t
- e
- Four Noble Truths
- Three Jewels
- Noble Eightfold Path
- Nirvana
- Middle Way
- Tathāgata
- Birthday
- Four sights
- Eight Great Events
- Great Renunciation
- Physical characteristics
- Life of Buddha in art
- Footprint
- Relics
- Iconography in Laos and Thailand
- Films
- Miracles
- Family
- Suddhodāna (father)
- Māyā (mother)
- Mahapajapati Gotamī (aunt, adoptive mother)
- Yaśodharā (wife)
- Rāhula (son)
- Ānanda (cousin)
- Devadatta (cousin)
- Places where the Buddha stayed
- Buddha in world religions
- Kaundinya
- Assaji
- Sāriputta
- Mahamoggallāna
- Ānanda
- Mahākassapa
- Aṅgulimāla
- Anuruddha
- Mahākaccana
- Nanda
- Subhūti
- Punna
- Upāli
- Mahapajapati Gotamī
- Khema
- Uppalavanna
- Asita
- Channa
- Yasa
- Avidyā (Ignorance)
- Bardo
- Bodhicitta
- Buddha-nature
- Dhamma theory
- Dharma
- Enlightenment
- Five hindrances
- Indriya
- Karma
- Kleshas
- Mental factors
- Mindstream
- Parinirvana
- Pratītyasamutpāda
- Rebirth
- Saṃsāra
- Saṅkhāra
- Skandha
- Śūnyatā
- Taṇhā (Craving)
- Tathātā
- Ten Fetters
- Three marks of existence
- Two truths doctrine
- Ten spiritual realms
- Six realms
- Deva realm
- Human realm
- Asura realm
- Hungry Ghost realm
- Animal realm
- Naraka
- Three planes of existence
- Bhavana
- Bodhipakkhiyādhammā
- Brahmavihara
- Buddhābhiṣeka
- Dāna
- Devotion
- Deity yoga
- Dhyāna
- Faith
- Five Strengths
- Iddhipada
- Meditation
- Merit
- Mindfulness
- Nekkhamma
- Nianfo
- Pāramitā
- Paritta
- Puja
- Offerings
- Prostration
- Chanting
- Refuge
- Sādhu
- Satya
- Seven Factors of Enlightenment
- Sati
- Dhamma vicaya
- Pīti
- Passaddhi
- Śīla
- Threefold Training
- Vīrya
- Twenty-two vows of Ambedkar
- Gautama Buddha
- Nagasena
- Aśvaghoṣa
- Nagarjuna
- Asanga
- Vasubandhu
- Kumārajīva
- Buddhaghosa
- Buddhapālita
- Dignāga
- Bodhidharma
- Zhiyi
- Emperor Wen of Sui
- Songtsen Gampo
- Xuanzang
- Shandao
- Padmasambhāva
- Saraha
- Atiśa
- Naropa
- Karmapa
- Hōnen
- Shinran
- Dōgen
- Nichiren
- Shamarpa
- Dalai Lama
- Panchen Lama
- Ajahn Mun
- B. R. Ambedkar
- Ajahn Chah
- Thích Nhất Hạnh
- Timeline
- Ashoka
- Kanishka
- Buddhist councils
- History of Buddhism in India
- Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution
- Greco-Buddhism
- Buddhism and the Roman world
- Buddhism in the West
- Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
- Persecution of Buddhists
- Banishment of Buddhist monks from Nepal
- Buddhist crisis
- Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
- Buddhist modernism
- Vipassana movement
- 969 Movement
- Women in Buddhism
- Abhijñā
- Amitābha
- Brahmā
- Dharma talk
- Hinayana
- Kalpa
- Koliya
- Lineage
- Māra
- Ṛddhi
- Siddhi
- Sacred languages
- Category
- Religion portal