The sources for the writing of the "Rgyud bzhi", Tibetan medical classic
The Rgyud bzhi, the classical Tibetan medical text and teaching manual for Tibetan medicine, was compiled by G.yu thog Yon tan mgon po in the twelfth century. Since the composition of the Rgyud bzhi, numerous commentaries on the text have been produced in Tibetan. This thesis considers the sources that the author drew upon in writing this work. While previous Western scholarship has only been able to recognize the influence of Indian medical texts on the Rgyud bzhi, this thesis introduces several works that were either composed or written in Tibetan prior to the translation of the main Indian medical work that influenced Tibetan medicine, the As[dotbelow]t[dotbelow]an gahr[dotbelow]dayasam[dotbelow]hit a, and which can be shown to have directly influenced major sections of the Rgyud bzhi . This thesis also points to numerous places in the work that were likely to have been the original composition of G.yu thog Yon tan mgon po. It demonstrates the multiply sources upon which the author drew and shows his creative process in synthesizing various threads of Asian medicine. It also identifies three works that G.yu thog wrote prior to the Rgyud bzhi, which served as drafts for the eventual magnum opus . The thesis begins with a survey of past research in both Tibetan and Western languages on the origins of the Rgyud bzhi . Then it moves in chapter one to provide a general overview of the early introduction of medical traditions from a variety of places and lineages into Tibet in the seventh to ninth centuries. It introduces several very important early medical texts that contributed to the formation of the Rgyud bzhi
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2010