JOURNAL 



OP 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. 37. — January, 1835. 



I. — Analysis of a Tibetan Medical Work. By M. Alexander Csoma 



DE KoROS.. 



The principal work on medicine in Tibet, is that entitled the " rGyud 

 bZhi" (fiVT^ca the tract m f° ur P arts )- It i s attributed to Sha'kya, 

 though not introduced into the Kah-gyur or Stan-gyur collections. 



When in Tibet I requested the Lama, my instructor in the language 

 of the country, to give me an account of its contents, which he did in 

 an abridged compilation divided, like the original, into four parts. The 

 present translation of the Lama's manuscript may be interesting to 

 those who are curious on the subject of Tibetan literature, and the 

 state of medical practice in that remote part of the world. The ma- 

 terials of the original are as usual all derived from Sanskrit works, which 

 have not however hitherto been made known in an English dress. 



The following is the account given in the work itself of the manner 

 in which this Treatise of Medicine found its way to Tibet. 



In the time of Khri-srong Dehutsan (in the 8th or 9th century 

 of the Christian era) a Tibetan interpreter Bairotsana (or Vairo- 

 chana) having translated it in Cashmir, with the assistance of a phy- 

 sician-pandit (i"q T 3f£V^E]Q-Dava mNon-gah) presented it to the 

 above mentioned Tibetan king. At that time it was received by 

 " ^yu-THOG" a learned physician, and by several others, and after- 

 wards it devolved successively to others till $tyu-thog, (the 13th in 

 descent, from the first) styled the New $tyuthog, to distinguish him 

 from the former physician of the same name, who is called ' the 

 ancient.' This physician much improved and propagated it ; and at 

 that time, it is stated, nine men became learned in medicine. 



The Lama, who wrote me this extract, enumerated several works 

 on medicine, current in Tibet, of which the most celebrated is a 



