commentary on the present work, entitled "Baidúrya sňon-po" (the lapis lazuli) written by "Sangs-rgyas rgya mts'ho" སྔེ་སྲིད་སངས་རྒྱས་རྒྱ་མཚོ a regent at Lassa about the end of the 17th century.
The Lama states that there are about forty books or works written in Tibet, on medicine, besides the five volumes in the Stan-gyur collection, and the scattered occasional instructions on medicaments in the Kah-gyur.
The chief medical school in Tibet is at Chák-phuri (ལྕགས་ཕུ་རི) a monastery at or near Lassa. There are also two others, in middle Tibet, of some repute, called Cháng-Zúr (བྱང་ཟུར).
First Part.
This is entitled རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད, rtsa-vahi-rgyut the root or basis of the (medical) tract. It is divided into six chapters.
First Chapter.
In this is described how Chomdandas (Shakya) transforming himself into the shape of a chief physician, in a forest of medical plants, delivered his instructions, in a superb palace, in the presence of gods, sages (or Rishis), and a large train both of heretic and orthodox hearers.
Second Chapter.
He (Shakya) addressed his audience thus:—"Assembled friends! be it known to you, that every human creature who wishes to remain in health; and every man who desires to cure any disease, and to prolong life, must be instructed in the doctrine of medicine. Likewise, he that wishes for moral virtue, wealth, or happiness, and desires to be delivered from the miseries of sickness; as also, he that wishes to be honoured or respected by others, must be instructed in the art of healing." Then one of the hermits or Rishis (དྲང་སྲོང-Drang-Srong) expressing his desire of promoting the well-being of others, requested his advice as to the manner in which he might become instructed in the doctrine of medicine. Then the teacher (Shakya) said: (or commanded) "He must be instructed in the four parts of the medical science, which are the
རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད—; བཤད་པའི་—; མན་ངག་གི་—; and ཕྱི་མའི་རྒྱུད
root or theory, explication, instruction, and lastly manual operation; farther, he must be instructed in the eight branches of healing; viz. 1, the curing of the whole body; 2, of particular diseases, incident to children; 3, to women; 4, the curing of diseases caused by evil spirits; 5, of wounds made by a knife, spear, &c.; 6, of all sorts of venomous or poisonous infections; 7, of the infirmities of old age; and 8, the increasing of virility in men. These are the principal divisions of the whole medical treatise.
The number of chapters in the four parts of this medical tract, amount to 156.
In the explanatory part, there are 11 places or sections, and 31 chapters; in the instructive part on cures or remedies for each specified disease, there are 15 circumstances and 92 chapters;— the last part has four divisions and 27 chapters.
