The authority of empiricism and the empiricism of authority: Medicine and Buddhism in Tibet on the eve of modernity

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 83-96

  Gyatso, Janet ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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MEDICINE;

EID: 17344362166     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-24-2-83     Document Type: Article

References (93)

1. Dar-mo sMan-rams-pa Blo-bzang-chos-grags (b. 1638), "Rus pa'i dum bu sum brgya drug cu'i skor bshad pa," in Bod lugs gso rig sman rtsis ched rtsom phyogs bsdus (Lhasa: sMan-rtsis Khang, 1996), 22-4, excerpted from his unpublished gSer mchan rnam bkra glegs bam gan mdzod.
2. The degree of the revolution in European science in the early modern period is itself subject to question: see Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
3. I took a similar approach to the issues of individualized selfhood, the writing of autobiography in Tibet, and modernity in Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
4. The common Tibetan terms are myong-ba and nyams, or some combination thereof. See Janet Gyatso, "Healing Burns with Fire: The Facilitations of Experience in Tibetan Buddhism," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67:1 (1999): 113-47.
5. The following is based largely on Zur-mkhar-ba Blo-gros rGyal-po (b. 1509), sMan pa rnams kyis mi shes su mi rung ba'i shes bya spyi'i khog dbubs (Chengdu: Si-khron Mi-rigs-dpe-skrunkhang, 2001), 287-321;
6. and modern surveys such as dKonmchog-rin-chen, Bod kyi gso rig chos 'byung haidurya'i 'phreng ba (Lanzhou: Kansu'u Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1992);
7. and Khro-ru Tshe-rnam, "Bod lugs gso rig slob grva rim byung gi lo rgyus gsal ba'i gtam dngul dkar me long," in Bod sman slob gso dang zhih 'jug 1996.1: 1-11.
8. See also Christopher Beckwith, "The Introduction of Greek Medicine into Tibet in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries," in Journal of the American Oriental Society 99:2 (1979): 297-313,
9. and Fernand Meyer, Gso-ba Rigpa. Le système medical tibétain (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1981).
10. Zur-mkhar-ba, sMan pa rnams, 291-9.
11. [gYu-thog Yon-tan mgon-po], bDud rtsi snying po yan lag brgyad pa gsang ba man ngag gi rgyud (Lhasa: Bod-ljongs Midmangs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1992) (hereafter cited as Four Tantras).
12. See Christopher Cullen, "Yi'an: The Origins of a Genre of Chinese Medical Literature," in Innovation in Chinese Medicine, ed. Elizabeth Hsu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 297-323.
13. See Claus Vogel, ed., Vagbhata's Astangahrdayasamhita, the First Five Chapters of its Tibetan Version (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1965);
14. Vagbhata, Vagbhata's Astangabrdayasamhita, ed. Rahul Peter Das and Ronald Eric Emmerick (Groningen: Forsten, 1998);
15. and R. E. Emmerick, "Sources of the Four Tantras," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (Wiesbaden) 3:2 (1977): 1135-42.
16. The Tibetan labels are lhan-thabs, sman-sbyor, 'khrungs-dpe, and lag-len.
17. Zur-mkhar-ba, sMan pa rnams, and sDe-srid Sangs-rgyasrgya-mtsho, dPal ldan gso ba rig pa'i khog 'bugs legs bshad baidurya'i me long drang srong dgyes pa'i dga' ston (Lanzhou: Kansu'u Mirigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1982) (hereafter cited as Khog 'bugs). There are earlier examples from at least the fourteenth century, yet to be studied by modern scholars.
18. Sometimes a work self-identifies as a nyams-yig, e.g., Kongsprul Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho (1813-99), 'Tsho byed las dang po la nye bar mkhor ba'i zin tig goes par btus pa bdud rtsi'i thigs pa, in gSo rig skor gyi rgyun mkho gal che ba hdam sgrigs, ed. Yon-tan-rgyamtsho et al. (Beijing: Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1988), 2.
19. E.g., sDe-dge-bla-sman Chos-grags-rgya-mtsho (eighteenth century) Nad sman sprod pa'i nyams yig, in gSo rig skor gyi rgyun mkho gal che ba bdam sgrigs, ed. Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho et al. (Beijing: Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1988), 417-18.
20. See sDe-srid Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho, Techniques of Lamaist Medical Practice, Being the Text of Man ngag yon tan rgyud kyi lhan thabs zug rngu'i tsha gdung sel ba 'i katpu ra dus min 'chi zhags good pa'i ral gri (Leh: S. W. Tashigangpa, 1970), 566 and 568-9.
21. Gong-sman dKon-mchog-phan-dar (1511-77), Nyams yig rgya rtsa: The Smallest Collection of Gong-sman Dkon-mchog-phandar's Medical Instructions to the Students (Leh: Lharje Tashi Yangphel Tashigang, 1969). Cf. the sources listed by sDe-srid, Techniques, 566-9.
22. sDe-srid, Techniques, 566-7.
23. sDe-dge-bla-sman, Nad sman, 401.
24. Kong-sprul, 'Tsho byed, 1-3.
25. Zur-mkhar-ba Blo-gros-rgyal-po already notes that the Four Tantra's bShad brgyud is rarely read: rGyud bzhi'i 'grel pa mes po'i zhal lung (Beijing: Krung-go'i Bod-kyi-shes-rig-dpe-skrunkhang, 1989), vol. 1, 95 (hereafter cited as Mes po'i). Cf. sDe-srid, Techniques, 566. Certainly by the twentieth century, physicians almost always use recent nyams-yigs as their actual handbooks, usually Kong-sprul, 'Tsho byed, or one of those by mKhyen-rab-nor-bu (1883-1962).
26. Kong-sprul, 'Tsho byed, 32-3;
27. 'Ju Mi-pham, bDud rtsi snying po'i rgyud kyi 'grel pa drang srong zhal lung las dum bu bzhi pa phyima rgyud kyi rtsa mdo chu mdo'i tika in gSo rig skor gyi rgyun mkho gal che ba bdam sgrigs, ed. Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho et al. (Beijing: Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1988), 260-2.
28. See dKon-mchog-rin-chen, Bod kyi gso rig, 187 and 188.
29. Kurtis R. Schaeffer, "Textual Scholarship, Medical Tradition, and Mahayana Buddhist Ideals in Tibet," Journal of Indian Philosophy 31 (2003): 621-41. Cf, sDe-srid, Techniques, 569, emphasizing his own recourse to authoritative works (lung) and reasoning (rigs) even after arguing that experience is most essential.
30. I.e., lung (Skt. agama); rigs (Skt.yukti); and myong-ba (Skt. not standard). See, e.g., Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i 3;
31. (rTag)-dpyad (Skt.vicara) is sometimes a synonym for myongba: Byams-pa-'phrin-las [quoting sDe-srid], "sDe srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho'i 'khrungs rabs dang mdzad rjes dad brgya'i padma rnam par bzhad pa'i phreng ba," in Byams pa 'phrin las kyi gsung rtsom phyogs bsgrigs (Beijing: Krung-go'i Bod-kyi-shes-rig-dpe-skrun-khang, 1997), 415.
32. E.g., sDe-srid, Techniques, 566, railing against "nyams-len byed-mi mi-'dug" (those who are not people who practice), even while also insisting on the need for learning. Cf. sMingling Ngag-dbang-sangs-rgyas-dpal-bzang's criticism of Darmo and others who are "attached to the words of the Great Tantra (Four Tantras) but fail to do practice; leaving behind clinical examination, they murder patients." Quoted by Byams-pa-'phrin-las, Gangs ljongs gso rig bstan pa'i nyin byed rim byon gyi rnam thar phyogs bsgrigs (Beijing: Mi-rigs-dpe-skrunkhang, 2000), 318.
33. Gyatso, "Healing Burns with Fire."
34. Jonathan I. Israel, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 252-6, 477-85, 535-40.
35. For an early example of death as a key issue in medical ethics, see Sum-ston-pa Ye-shes-gzungs (twelfth century), "'Grel ba 'bum chung gsal sgron nor bu'i 'phreng mdzes," in gYu thog cha lag bco brgyad (Lanzhou: Kansu'u Mi-rigs-dpeskrun-khang, 1999), vol. 1, especially 297 seq.
36. Trib. dngos-su-mthong-zhing or mngon-sum-du.
37. Cf., for example, Candrakirti's arcane analysis of the status of things that are directly perceived: Mervyn Sprung, trans., Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way (London : Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), pp. 60-63.
38. [gYu-thog], Four Tantras, 27 and 35.
39. [gYu-thog], Four Tantras, 375, 560, and 17. The last two explanations for the sex of a child are standard in Indic Ayurveda.
40. Byang-pa rNam-rgyal-dpal-bzang (1395-1475), bShad rgyud kyi 'grel chen bdud rtsi'i chu rgyun (Chengdu: Si-khron Mirigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 2001), 90.
41. Byang-pa bKra-shis-dpal-bzang, dPal Idan bshad pa'i rgyud kyi 'grel pa bklag pa don tham chad grub pa (photocopy of ms.), 63a-82a.
42. Yan-dgon-pa rGyal-mtshan-dpal (1213-58), rDo rje lus kyi sbas bshad in The Collected Works (Gsun 'bum) of Yan-dgon-pa Rgyal-mtshan-dpal (Thimphu: Kunsang Topgey, 1976), vol. 2, 434-5.
43. sKyem-pa Tshe-dbang (fifteenth century), rGyud bzbi'i rnam bshad (Xining: mTsho-sngon Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 2000), 129.
44. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 133, 152, and 159.
45. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 152 seq.
46. Tib. bskyed cing. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 162. He also says that lalana and rasanail are the basis (gzbi) of the white and black soul channels (133); or exist "in connection" (dang 'brelba) with them (165).
47. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 155.
48. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 133.10-12. This srog-rtsa is different from the black and white srog-rtsa specified under the heading of the "connecting channels" in the mature body. See also Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 166.20-22 seq. Zur-mkhar-ba and others also consider the Four Tantras' fourth kind of channel, the life channel, as a place to juxtapose the tantric system of channels, but these discussions largely quote tantric sources and avoid specific medical anatomy: Mes po'i, 166-74. I will examine the interesting details of this debate in a longer publication.
49. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 133.
50. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 154.
51. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 133 and 154.
52. Mi-'thad-pa. Cf. sDe-srid Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho, gSo ba rig pa'i bstan bcos sman bla'i dgongs rgyan rgyud bzhi'i gsal byed hai dur sngon po'i ma lli ka (Leh: D. L. Tashigang, 1981), vol. 2 [ck], 152 (hereafter cited as Blue Beryl). He calls this view "stupid."
53. sDe-srid, Blue Beryl, vol. 2, 173-4.
54. Compare sDe-srid, Blue Beryl, vol. 2, 151 seq., and Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 153 seq.
55. See, e.g., Kong-sprul Blo-gros-mtha-yas, "rNal 'byor bla na med pa'i rgyud sde rgya mtsho'i snying po bsdus pa zab mo nang di don nyung ngu'i tshig gis rnam par 'grol ba sab don snang byed," in Zam mo nang gi don zhes bya ba'i gzbung gi rtsa 'grel, ed. Karma Rang-byung-rdo-rje and Kong-sprul Yontan -rgya-mtsho (Xining: mTsho-sngon Bod-lugs-gso-rig-slobgrva-chen-mo, 1999), 57-333. This is reportedly also the position of a Four Tantras commentary by 'Ju Mi-pham. For a recent example by the twentieth-century scholar Tsultrim Gyaltsen, see Francis Garrett and Vincanne Adams, "The Three Channels in Tibetan Medicine," Traditional South Asian Medicine, forthcoming 2004.
56. Gling-sman bKra-shis, gSo ba rig pa'i gzbung rgyud bzbi'i dka' 'grel (Chengdu: Si-khron Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1988), 44-5.
57. Gling-sman, gSo ba rig pa'i gzhung, 46; "material" = gdos bcas.
58. Cited in Zur-mkhar-ba, Mes po'i, 696-7. Cf, Byang-pa bKra-shis-dpal-bzang, dPal Idan phyi ma brgyud kyi 'grel pa rin po che'i bang mdzod dgos 'dod 'byung ba (incomplete photocopy of ms.), 293-9.
59. [gyU-thog], Four Tantras, 560: "ci phyi glo snying g.yas g.yon phyogs med kyang / snying gi rtse mo de ltar bstan pa'i phyir."
60. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mespo'i, 697.
61. Zur-mkhar-ba, Mespo'i, 698.
62. Gling-sman, gSo ha rig pa'i gzhung, 477-8.
63. Gling-sman, gSo ba rig pa'i gzhung, 478: "bDag gis ni pho mo mang po'i ro bshas pa mthong / Rang gis kyang gri snying blangs pas pho mo thams cad snying rtse cung zad g.yon phyogs brang ngos la bsten pa mthong."
64. Garrett and Adams, "Three Channels," 19.
65. For an overview of the period, see Tsipon Shakabpa, A Political History of Tibet (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967);
66. Luciano Petech, China and Tibet in the Early XVIIIth Century: History of the Establishment of Chinese Protectorate in Tibet (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972).
67. An admirable beginning is Françoise Pommaret, ed., Lhasa in the Seventeenth Century: The Capital of the Dalai Lamas (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
68. The archival sources for this period are substantial, but our information depends for the moment largely on the secondary work of contemporary Tibetan scholars who are systematically combing the lengthy auto/biographies of the key figures in the period; examples include dKon-mchog Rinchen, Bod kyi gso rig, and some of the essays in Byams-pa-phrin-las, Byams pa 'phrin las kyi gsung rtsom.
69. The physician is styled "(R)manaho." dKon-mchog-rinchen, Bod kyigso rig, 99; Byams-pa-'phrin-las, Gangs ljongs gso rig bstan pa'i nyin byed, 315, quoting the Fifth's autobiography, Dukula'gos bzaug.
70. dKon-mchog-rin-chen, Bod kyi gso rig, 100-4; Byams-palphrin-las, "sDe srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho'i," 414-17.
71. Byams-pa-'phrin-las, "sDe srid s-angs rgyas rgya mtsho'i," 417 seq.
72. Yuri Parfionovitch, Gyurme Dorje, and Fernand Meyer, eds., Tibetan Medical Paintings.- Illustrations to the Blue Beryl Treatise of Sangye Gjamtso (1653-1705), 2 vols. (London: Serindia Publications, 1992).
73. For a history of the set, see Byams-pa-'phrinlas, "Bod kyi g so rig rgyud bzhi'i nang don mtshon pa'i sman thang bris cha'i skor la rags tsam dpyad pa," in Byams pa 'pbrin las kyigsung rtsom, 370-81.
74. Byams-pa-'phrin-las, "sDe srid sangs rgyas rgya mtshoi," 425-6, quoting sDe-srid's Blue Begryl.
75. For example, he notes that when you look at an actual body you see that the heart tip faces left in both male and female: Byams-pa-'phrin-las, "sDe srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho'i," 425-6.
76. "... dmar khrid mdzub tshugs su ngo sprod sngon med kyi bris cha..." Byams-pa-'phrin-las, "sDe srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho'i," 424, quoting sDe-srid's mCbod sdong 'dzam gling rgyan grig rten gtsug lag khang dang beas pa'i dkar chag, f. 281.
77. Byams-pa-'phrin-las, "sDe srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho'i," 419, quoting sDe-srid's Baidurya Ser po. sDe-srid's mChod sdong is also a key source here: it has been studied by Kurtis Schaeffer, "Controlling Time and Space in Lhasa," paper delivered to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Toronto, November 2002.
78. For striking images of the rituals of the Tibetan state by the mid-twentieth century, see Hugh Richardson, Ceremonies of the Lbasa Year, ed. Michael Aris (London: Serindia, 1993).
79. Zur-mkhar-ba, "rGyud bzhi bka' dang bstan bcos rnam par dbye ba mun sel sgron me," in Bod kyi sman rtsis ched r tsom phyogs bsdus, ed. Bod Rang-skyong-ljongs sMan-rtsis-khang (Lhasa: Bod-ljongs Mi-dmangs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1986), 64.
80. See also Samten Karmay, "The Four Tibetan Medical Treatises and their Critics," reprinted in The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in Histog, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1998), 228-37. When Karmay first published this article in 1990, many key sources, including those by Zur-mkhar-ba, were not accessible.
81. Karmay, "Four Tibetan Medical Treatises," 230, n. 15. Others who argued for gYu-thog's authorship included Bodong Phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal (1376-1451) and sTag-tshang Shes-rab rin-chen (b. 1405).
82. See Janet Gyatso, "The Logic of Legitimation in the Tibetan Treasure Tradition," History of Religions 33:1 (1993): 97-134.
83. Zur-mkhar-ba, "rGyud bzhi bka'," 70.
84. Cf Zur-mkhar-ba's detailed discussion in Mes poi, 4 seq.
85. See list in Karmay, "Four Tibetan Medical Treatises," 234-7.
86. See Ghng-sman, gSo ba rig pa'i gzbung, 4-8.
87. sDe-srid, Kbog 'bugs, 274-6.
88. See n. 70 above.
89. Mes po'i, 21-2. Here he vacillates between calling Four Tantras sastra and a category of scriptures composed by figures other than the Buddha but which in some sense were inspired by the Buddha (rjes-su-gnang-ba'i bka) and which therefore still count as canonical'. I am saving the details of this intricate argument for a longer study.
90. Zur-mkhar-ba, sMan pa mams, 311-13.
91. sDe-srid, Blue Beryl, vol. 2, 151.4; he only says "Zur," which could refer to Zur-mkhar-ba's predecessor, but I think the ambiguity is disingenuous. See n. 47 above. Other sections in Blue Beryl are also closely dependent upon Mes po'i.
92. sDe-srid, Kbog 'bugs, 349-55; see especially 352-3.
93. An example would be the invocation of the invisibility of the tantric central channel as a model for the imperceptibility of certain fine channels connected to the liver: 'Bri-gung dKon-mchog-'gro-phan-dbang-po (b. 1631), "gSo ba rig pa'i gzhung lugs chenpo dpal Idan rgyud bzhi'i dka' gnad dogs sel gyi zin bris mdo," in 'Bri gunggso rig gces bsdus ed. 'Bri-gung Chos-grags et al. (Beijing: Mi-rigs-dpe-skrun-khang, 1999), 134-8.