Catalogue · Related medicines

Frame (read first)

Not a direct inspiration from the Medicine Buddha. It is rather the other way round.

According to tradition: the Four Tantras (rGyud bzhi), the great Sowa Rigpa text, present themselves as a teaching of the Medicine Buddha.

According to historians: that text was composed by drawing on knowledge already there — Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, Persian / Greco-Arabic learning, and local knowledge. Ayurveda and Chinese medicine are older; they do not “come from” the Medicine Buddha. The figure was applied afterwards onto Sowa Rigpa, as a tutelary landmark.

Both readings can coexist. Here we talk about history and science, without criticizing the traditions: tradition and historical enquiry stay side by side.

Landmark: Janet Gyatso, Being Human in a Buddhist World (Columbia University Press, 2015) — already cited on Lapis; plural synthesis also on Peoples and languages.

Reference books and works

• Raoul Birnbaum — The Healing Buddha

  Historical reference on the Medicine Buddha figure. Already in the Lapis catalogue.

  See at the seller

• In Search of the Medicine Buddha — Ayurveda wisdom (catalogue edition)

  Already-listed work linking the figure to Ayurveda. Read as a document, not a prescription.

  See at the seller

• Janet Gyatso — Being Human in a Buddhist World

  Scholarly study (Columbia University Press) of medicine and knowledge in the Buddhist world. Publisher link.

  cup.columbia.edu

• Sienna Craig — Healing Elements

  Anthropology of Himalayan medicine (University of California Press). Publisher link.

  ucpress.edu

• UNESCO — Sowa Rigpa medicinal bathing (intangible heritage)

  Institutional fiche: knowledge and practices documented as cultural heritage — not as a Lapis care protocol.

  ich.unesco.org