A Tibetan doctor examines a patient's tongue while taking his pulse. Photo: CFP
By Fu Wen
The Tibetan government plans to further promote traditional Tibetan medicine to people from different ethnic backgrounds around the country and even outside China. However, experts and industry insiders say authorities need to tackle a variety of challenges, including fake drugs.
The food and drug administration in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, recently smashed a syndicate selling fake Tibetan drugs, qianlong.com reported November 10. Manufacturers had claimed one of the drugs could improve kidney function.
The packaging of the drugs indicated they had been produced by Tibetan medical institutions, but the administration said the manufacturers were unable to show legal production certificates.
On Tuesday, the food and drug administration in Qingshan district, Inner Mongolia, also found a local pharmacy selling three fake Tibetan drugs. The administration called on the public to report fake medicines to the authorities.
The Economic Information Daily, a newspaper run by the Xinhua News Agency, reported earlier, citing an industry insider, that the ratio of real and fake Tibetan drugs in the market is 1:10.
The report quoted a drug administration official in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province as saying more than 1,000 items of fake Tibetan drugs were smuggled into the city each day. The report said there were about 40 manufacturers of fake Tibetan drugs in Qinghai and Gansu provinces.
However, authorities across the country still want to promote traditional medicine. In Tibet, a government plan was issued last month aimed at spreading knowledge of traditional medicine to people in other parts of the country and even the world.
Under the plan, investment will be injected into local medicine companies, and help will be given to the Tibetan Traditional Medical College to build the world's largest Tibetan medicine sample and documentation center. The plan would also see Tibetan medical services included in health insurance plans.
The industry insider told the Economic Information Daily that many legitimate drug manufacturers are being severely affected by fake Tibetan drugs.
To many Tibetans, Tibetan medicine not only involves the use of herbs to cure illness, but also embodies a philosophy of human life.
Nimajiangcai, a Tibetan college lecturer in Yushu, Qinghai Province, began suffering from gastroenteritis in 2002. But he did not go to a general hospital for help. Instead, he paid 100 yuan ($15) to a Tibetan doctor, who prescribed him herbal medicine and asked him to pray everyday, which is considered part of "life behavior treatment."
After a year of treatment, the stomach pains went away. "Tibetan medicine is an essential part of Tibetan people's lives because it works so well, especially for chronic diseases," he said.
Ancient techniques
Apart from herbal medicine and prayer, Tibetan medicine has other distinctive methods of diagnosing and treating diseases. These include bloodletting and examining patients' urine samples, techniques that people unfamiliar with Tibetan culture find mystifying.
By visually examining the color, smell, bubbles and sediments in a urine sample, an experienced Tibetan doctor can tell what kind of disease the patient is suffering from, and placing the urine in different metal containers can also help finalize the diagnosis.
According to Rgyud-bzhi (Four Tibetan Medical Tantras), the most famous classics to record ancient Tibetan medical theory, there are 77 acupuncture points on the human body conducive to treatment through bloodletting.
"Tibetan medicine is more than just a way to cure disease. It also represents the Tibetan culture and belief system," Lexinjake, an official at the Qinghai Tibetan Culture Museum, told the Global Times yesterday.
As Tibetan doctors believe that the human body is connected to the natural environment, they need to calculate the best time to feel the pulse and collect herbs for making medicine in the correct seasons in order to achieve the best treatment.
Spreading the word
Tibetan medicine is not expensive. There are usually no fixed medical fees a patient needs to pay a Tibetan doctor who is not registered with regular hospitals in Tibetan communities.
Patients pay according to their financial capacity, and the doctor will still treat them even if a patient cannot afford to pay anything.
In Tibetan culture, if you can donate herbal medicines to a traditional doctor to help others, it is considered a meritorious act that will bring you future benefits.
"A reputable Tibetan doctor is a symbol of kindness in the community who can attract donations of herbal medicine that help reduce the medical costs of other patients," said Nimajiangcai.
While Tibetan medicine still retains an air of mysticism in China, it is gradually shedding this image in Europe. Recently, at the University of Madrid in Spain, European medical students welcomed a group of Tibetologists who gave lectures on Tibetan medical culture, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
As the leading Tibetan medicine research institute in China, the Beijing Tibetan Hospital issued completion certificates to 29 foreign students in May after providing a 10-day training program as part of the campaign to promote Tibetan medicine worldwide, the report said.
"Tibetan medicine is not just designed for Tibetans, but to benefit people around the world without national boundaries," said Lexinjake.
Unlike ancient times, when Tibetan medicine knowledge was passed down among a restricted circle of elites in monasteries, students nowadays are able to study Tibetan medicine in leading academies such as the Tibetan Traditional Medical College and Qinghai University Medical School.
