Tibetan Medical Thangka
of the Four Medical Tantras (Tibetan-English edition)
ISBN: 9787223023689; 2nd edition in 2008
Publishing House: Tibet People's Publishing House
599 Pages; Hardcover; Language: Tibetan-English
Brief Description
Since the publication of the Tibetan-Chinese edition of TIBETAN
MEDICAL THANGKA, great interests have been aroused among readers both abroad and
at home. Many foreign friends asked about the publishing work of this voluminous
atlas, probing the possibility of the publication of another edition of TMT, a
Tibetan-English edition. It was on this basis that I was encouraged to make such
a contribution.
In regards to the
academic and historic significance of these medical thangkas, it has been dealed
with in the preface written by the compiler of the Tibetan-Chinese edition.
Reports revealed that a few of such medical thangka replicas, mainly that of
vessels and points, can be found outside China, including the U.S., Sweden, etc.
Professor R.E.Emmerick of the Hamburg University made a presentation about
medical thangkas at an International workshop on Tibetan Medicine held last year
in London, sponsored by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
However, what he had
been dealing with was based on quite a limited number of thangkas that he saw
during a visit to Lhasa in 1984. Unfortunately, all of these didn't give a
complete picture of the whole medical thangkas series. Naturally, foreign
Tibetologists long for such acomplete introduction and the present publication
of this TibetanEnglish edition is doubtlessly a great event in the study of
Tibetology, especially to our foreign colleagues. Now we Present this
Tibetan-English edition to our foreign friends to share and enjoy these rare
treasures with us.
It should be pointed
out that the current edition is not the rigorous word-to-word translation of the
Tibetan-Chinese edition of the medical thangka series, rather, it follows more
strictly to the Tibetan originals. During the Process of translation, we have
corrected some of the mistakes and shortcomings in the Tibetan-Chinese edition.
Due to some technical reasons, the Chinese translation doesn't follow strictly
to the Tibetan originals, instead, it is, actually, a liberal translation.
Hence,some of the important points in the originals are not manifested, whereas
some of the Chinese contents are not reflected in the Tibetan originals. What is
more, there are some incorrect spellings of the Tibetan words. All of these
shortcomings are checked. However, the most distinctive changes are the major
revisions on the captions of some thangkas. Within the series, there are twin
thangkas, including thangkas Nos. 6-7, 9-10, 16-17, 40-41, 49-50, 74-75, the
original Tibetan captions of which should read from one thangka, line to line to
its corresponding partner thangka. Unfortunately, the Tibetan- Chinese edition
printed these captions of twin thangkas separately, thus, rendering the captions
illegible and difficult to understand. We have re-rendered the captions so that
it can be read smoothly and easily understood. Major revisions were also made on
the Chinese translation of the thangka captions. All the revisions and
corrections are based strictly on the originals from the Four Medical Tantras
（rGyud-bzhi） and sDe-srid Sangs-rgyas rGyamtsho's gSo-rig sMan-gyi Khog-'bugs
and Vaidurya sNgon-po.
In addition to the
above changes, some minor changes were also made in this edition:
1. Since Tibetan language is succinct and precise, usually, a Tibetan word need
explaining by several words or even with one sentence. Hence, it is necessary,
sometimes, for us to supplement some extra words for easy understanding. For
bistinguishing, we put these words in parentheses.
2. Many materia medicas
are not identified scientifically as yet. Such medicaments are expressed by
Latin transliteration, such as sGro-ba. Scientific terms are given when the
species have been identified. However, where there are controversies on the
species, a Tibetan herb might bear two or more Latin titles due to different
interpretations, Under such cases, all the titles are givcn with their sources
indicated for reference.
3. Some revisions were
also made in the captions for detailed illustrations such as checking errors,
suppelementing omissions, For instances, on p. 106, （5）., the Tibetan caption of
Srog-rtsa and Srid-rtsa, missing in the illustration, are supplemented, All the
wrong Tibetan spellings have been checked and corrected.
4. Generally, the
English captions for each illustration begin with a capital letter. However, in
many cases, a certain topic may cover several illustrations.Usually, the
subjects of the following illustrations are omitted. In such instances, the
captions of the latter illustrations begin with a small letter, indicating that
the subjects are omitted, such as those of the （38）, （39）, （40）...in page 429.
Table of Contents
Remarks
About TIBETAN MEDICAL THANGKA
Legendary characters in Tibetan Medical System and famous doctors of the
Southern and Northern Schools
Thangka One
Thangka Two
Thangka Three
Thangka Four
...................
...................
Thangka Seventy-seven
Thangka Seventy-eight
Thangka Seventy-nine
Thangka Eighty
