China's Tibetan Medicine

There are several ancient cultures in the world, including those of China, India, Egypt and Greece, in which medicine plays an important part. With the passage of time, these medical systems have undergone dramatic changes, in some cases vanishing or evolving into another pattern of medicine. In a few cases, however, the traditional system has been retained and even further developed. Chinese traditional medicine is one such, while traditional Tibetan medicine is another. Traditional Tibetan medicine (TTM) has a history and systematic theory second only in duration to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) of the Han nationality, and this is mainly because the present unified written Tibetan language was only standardized by the Tubo Dynasty in the 7th century AD.

Emergence (Remote Antiquity-6th Century AD)
Medicine is as old as the human race, which might not have survived without its existence and development. Therefore, in probing the history of Tibetan medicine, we must first consider the origin of the Tibetan race. There are various hypotheses that can be summarized as follows.

"Hypothesis of the Divine Monkey": It was said that there was a divine monkey whose elevation to divine status had not completely eradicated its secular thinking and enjoyment of secular life. He had intercourse with a goddess in the mountain and they had six children who became the ancestors of the Tibetan people. It is said that there is a "monkey's grotto" located in Rtsed-thang County of Shannan (Lhokha) region, where the said monkey stayed. This story is rather popular in the area where Tibetan people dwell, such as Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu provinces. Though a legend, it still provides clues on the origin of Tibetan medicine ethnic group.

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