Encyclopaedia of Tibetan Medicine

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Discourses. 2. Enumeration of discoursed topics. 3. Description of healthy and diseased individuals. 4. Methods of examination. 5. Therapeutic measures. 6. Enumeration of topics. Appendix: 1. Sections and chapters in the four books of Rgyud bzi. 2. Metaphoric tree of health. 3. Glossary of technical and other terms arranged in the Tibetan alphabetical order (Tibetan/Sanskrit/English). 4. Glossary of technical and other terms arranged in the Roman alphabetical order (Sanskrit/Tibetan/English). 5. Glossary of technical and other terms arranged in Roman alphabetical order (English/Tibetan/Sanskrit).

From the preface: "Health conscious people and scientists all over the world are evincing keen interest in "alternative medicine" and the World Health Organisation has recognised the role of traditional medicine in achieving health for all by 2000 A.D. Indo-Tibetan medicine enshrined in Rgyudbzi is a veritable treasure of centuries of accumulated experience with rational fundamentals and scientifically analysable therapeutic measures meant for the preservation and promotion of positive health, and prevention and cure of obstinate and otherwise incurable diseases. Rgyudbzi which was originally composed in Sanskrit and still preserved in Tibetan translation literally means a "Four-fold Treatise". Because of its Sanskrit origin and ignorance of Ayurveda, technical terms used in this text are oftern misrepresented in translations and critical analyses. The present effort is to give the Sanskrit equivalents on the basis of Ayurvedic texts like Vagbhata's Astanga-hrdaya of which both the original Sanskrit-form and Tibetan translation are available. On the basis of this equivalent terminology, the text of Rgyudbzi is rendered into English in a narrative form. In future, this will also help in restoring the original Sanskrit text, which, as the opening sentence of this translated text shows, was, known as Amrta-hrdaya-astanga-guhyopadesa-tantra.

"The whole work will be published in 15 volumes. The present first volume contains the first part of this four-fold text. It is the smallest but the most important part of this invaluable work in as much as it presents in a nut-shell the entire text in the form of a tree having three roots, nine trunks, forty seven branches, 224 leaves, two flowers and three fruits along with a vivid picture of the flora and fauna of the mountain ranges in the south, north, east and west of the dron khyer or city called Lta-na-sdug (Lit. the place which is beautiful to look at) identified with either Varanasi or Bodh-Gaya, the abodes of Lord Buddha. These four mountain ranges are the Vindhyas, the Himalayas, the Gandhamardana mountain and the Malaya mountain. It also describes the various categories of retinues and their names who heard the medical teachings from the emanations (Nirmana-kayas) of Bhaisajya-guru incarnation of Lord Buddha."