Vignette 3 Pillars of Tibetan Medicine: The Chagpori and the Mentsikhang Institutes in Lhasa Theresia Hofer and Knud Larsen This essay discusses two of Lhasa's most important historic Tibetan medical institutions. One Since there are many Tibetan medical Many of the medical colleges known as facilities throughout the Tibetan Plateau, in Menpa Drazangs in Mongolia were part of the Gelugpa monasteries and were founded is the Chagpori Medical College, which stood Mongolia, and in Indian exile- both monastic atop the "Iron Hill" opposite Potala Palace from and secular- readers might ask why we have beginning in the early eighteenth century the late seventeenth century until its destruction chosen to focus on these two Lhasa-based after the establishment of Chagpori Medical by the People's Liberation Army in March institutions and their medical, artistic, and College. Some even taught according to the 1959 (FIG. V3.1). The other is the Mentsikhang architectural legacy? Lhasa in the late seven- Chagpori curriculum. Chagpori-trained physi- (literally, Institute for Medicine and Astrology), teenth and early twentieth century was not cians were often sent to Mongolia to help with which was established in the early twentieth only the political and, to some extent, religious the establishment of medical colleges and to century and is still active and expanding to this capital of Tibet; it was also a major center for teach. The same was true for the Kumbum and day. The Mentsikhang's original Tibetan-style medical learning. The two institutions we will Labrang monasteries in northeastern Tibet; the building is preserved very near Lhasa's central discuss were central to innovations and new latter is discussed in vignette 2 in the context Jhokhang Temple and the surrounding Bharkhor developments and artistic engagement with of its medical murals . In short, the model of area, although the four major institutions that medicine, activities that were all supported the monastic medical college at Chagpori left a have evolved from it since the 1980s and that and overseen by the most powerful leaders legacy that reached far beyond Lhasa . carry out most Tibetan medical teaching and of their time, namely the Dalai Lamas and practice and production of medicine in Lhasa their regents (see also chapter 10). Physicians are housed in large modern buildings scattered and students working there were intimately across the city. After a brief summary of the historical origins and the political, medical, and artistic linked to and ultimately served the political and Buddhist elites of the time who had come to power with support of the Mongols in the contexts of the establishment of the two mid-seventeenth century. Boasting both original Lhasa institutions, we will describe and growing medical expertise and support from reconstruct their architectural layout and design the Tibetan government, these institutions in order to fill an important gap in existing works were in demand as medical schools. With on secular and Buddhist Tibetan architecture in the growing expansion of Tibetan Buddhism Lhasa. 1 Throughout we reflect how architecture and Sowa Rigpa, especially into Mongolia, the and the visual art, such as that expressed in Lhasa institutions became templates for the medical paintings, murals, and statues and a medical facilities that were subsequently part of the Tibetan "arts and crafts," interacted established elsewhere. Throughout the region, and intersected with medical practice and Gelugpa monasteries began to serve more teaching, and with Buddhism. The actual formally as important medical centers. They medical and to some extent Buddhist activities complemented, and at times intersected with, of the two Lhasa facilities are touched upon the transmission and practice of Tibetan medi- here only briefly, as several accounts on the cine in family and other medical lineages, as historical and contemporary context have been well as in training institutions of other Buddhist provided elsewhere 2 orders. I •• ., V3.1 Chagpori Medical College in Lhasa in 1904. Drawing by L. Austine Waddell HOFER AND LARSEN : CHAGPORI AND MENTSIKHANG, LHASA 257 A later example of an attempt to mirror one of the Lhasa institutes is the Men-Tsee-Khang, 3 resembled the mythical city of Tanadug, whose center features the palace where the Medicine which was established in 1961 in Dharamsala in Buddha resided while teaching the Gvushi, northern India. Following the flight of the Dalai or Four Tantras (see FIG. 1.1). Sangye Gyatso Lama in 1959 and as a result of socio-political sought confirmation from one of his court upheavals in the region, thousands of Tibetans physicians, an expert in pharmacology, that the left Tibet and crossed the border into Nepal and site also featured rare medicinal materials that India . Once the seat of the exile government had cooling and warming properties 6 was established in Dharamsala, the then tiny Sangye Gyatso decided to integrate the medical institute's primary goal was to provide structure and contents of the existing Drubthog essential and affordable medical services for Lhakhang into a new building dedicated to the growing exile community that had begun medicine and to medical-spiritual practice. The to settle in this town in the foothills of the Indian previous history of the site lent great religious Himalayas. The institute soon developed from authority to the new institution, which contin- a clinic in one small building into a large facility ued to function as a temple while medicine was that featured teaching, clinical and pharmaceuti- being taught and practiced there. It is likely that cal departments, and it also became the node the design of the college building itself retained of a network of more than forty branch clinics some characteristics of this earlier temple, throughout India. Today the Tibetan government especially its predominant external feature, a in exile and many of the staff of the Men-Tsee- cylindrical tower that protruded high over the Khang see this institution as an important flat roofs of surrounding structures. It is this means of preserving aspects of Tibetan culture central tower, or at least its lower part, that is in exile 4 likely to have been at least a part of the original structure of Thangtong Gyalpo's temple 7 CHAGPORI MEDICAL COLLEGE: "TANADUG ISLAND OF KNOWLEDGEBERYL BENEFIT TO SENTIENT BEINGS" V3.2 Buddhist Statues Inside of Chagpori. Chagpori; ca. 1950s. Courtesy of Robert Gerl V3.3 Young Buddhist monks at Chagpori making medical pills, ca. 1938/1939. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv, Bild, Deutschland. 135-S-16-05-14 The full name of the college, Tanadug Island of Knowledge - Beryl Benefit to Sentient Beings these objects, which are associated with ritual (Bai durya 'gro phan Ita na ngo mtshar rig byed worship, squarely placed the medical tradition gling) 8 is an indication of Sangye Gyatso's vision within the Buddhist realm, paying tribute to the During his lifetime, the Fifth Dalai Lama, of the medical city of Tanadug in this location on scholars and lineage holders associated with Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (see FIGS . 10.2 and Chagpori Hill (see chapter 1). The name incor- both medicine and Buddhism w The facility porates Tibetan Buddhism's wider bodhisattva featured a library where Buddhist, medical, and several small medical training facilities outside aspirations to benefit all sentient beings and astrological works were kept, not least those Lhasa and in central Tibet, as well as for having Sangye Gyatso's own symbolic connection by Sangye Gyatso. There was also a printing invited many medical scholars to teach and with the precious beryl stone, which he had press attached to the college, where important work at his court in Lhasa. 5 It was not until the already used in titles for several of his writings. medical texts were produced and some of their period after his death and the rule of his brilliant Court physicians of the Dalai Lama and Sangye xylographs kept. 10.3). was known to have made donations to regent, Sangye Gyatso (FIG. 10.1). that a dedi- Gyatso were asked to provide academic medical Sangye Gyatso's decision to locate the cated medical college was established in Lhasa. training to Gelugpa monks who had been invited medical college at the top of Chagpori Hill, by the government to come from monasteries directly opposite Potala Palace, the seat of third month of the fire-monkey year of the The story goes that Sangye Gyatso, in the throughout Tibet. The recently completed set the Dalai Lamas (FIG. V3.4). 11 is clear evidence twelfth Tibetan calendar cycle (i.e 1696). went of seventy-nine medical paintings was also of the literal and figurative elevation that the on a pilgrimage to Lhasa's "Iron Hill" (Chagpori). preserved at the college (see chapter 10). Many medical sciences experienced under the rule which already featured several important life-size Buddhist statues, thangkas, and murals of the recently centralized Ganden Phodrang Buddhist caves and shrines. One of the were kept in the round multistory central build- government, shortly after it succeeded in unify- structures located at the top was the Drubthog ing and in the assembly hall at the ground-floor ing disparate Tibetan principalities. Together Lhakhang temple (Grub thob Lha khang). built level. Some of them had been acquired many with Sangye Gyatso's writings and the medical in 1430 by Tibet's prolific master engineer and centuries earlier; some were added when paintings, which are featured throughout this yogi Thangton Gyalpo. During this pilgrimage, the institution was founded; the most recent volume, the establishment of Chagpori was part Sangye Gyatso had a vision that this site additions dated to 1954 (see FIG. V3.2) .9 Many of of a larger effort aimed at newly defining the 258 PART TWO : MEDICINE, BUDDHISM, AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS V3.4 Lhasa with the Potala at the Center. Chagpori College is seen opposite Potala, to the left and on top of Chagpori hill. Mongolia; 18th-19th century. Mineral pigments on cloth; 87.3 x 62.2 em. Rubin Museum of Art. C2009.4 (HAR 65848) HOFER AND LARSEN : CHAGPORI AND MENTSIKHANG. LHASA 259 N 0 2 4 6 8 10m LL.rrLL J'L...L J V3.5 Chagpori Medical College in 1956 V3.7 Ground plan of Chagpori, preliminary reconstruction . © Knud Larsen, 2013. A: Original core, 8: 17th-century prayer hall, C: Printing press, 0: Kitchen Preserved fragment of wall V3 .6 The Ruins of Chagpori Medical College in 1982. Courtesy of Heinrich Harrer Museum 260 PART TWO : MEDICINE, BUDDHISM, AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS V3.8 North facade of Chagpori, preliminary reconstruction. © Knud Larsen, 2013 medical sciences, with a view to establishing assembly hall; the middle floor would have been and maintaining the hegemony and political reached from the gallery in the assembly hall; study is still in its infancy. We should certainly power of the Gelugpa order and the Ganden and the top floor was probably accessed from not assume that Chagpori Medical College in Phodrang government. the roof of the assembly hall. The asymmetri- the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, or Architecture of the Chagpori College In order to envision the exterior design of the Chagpori Medical College building, we must rely social history of Tibetan medicine as a field of cally placed window on the upper floor seems even earlier, functioned as a modern medical to have pointed toward Potala Palace. clinic for treating patients. It would also be Although it is fairly easy to judge the height of the tower from the number of standard floors, an overstatement to call the foundation of Chagpori the beginning of public health care on photographs, drawings, and descriptions of it is difficult to deduce the horizontal dimensions. in Tibet. 17 Chagpori seems to have been, above all, a medical training institution and a medical its appearance before it was destroyed in March Some photographs indicate that the main struc- 1959. In the present study, we have analyzed ture surrounding the lower part of the tower was monastery (FIG. V3.3), for physicians and stu- photographs taken by a number of Europeans square, but others make it look rectangular. A dents to provide care and medications to fellow Gelugpa Buddhist monks and high government and Tibetans, including Charles Bell, Spencer key to this question was provided by Tenzin Chapman, Heinrich Harrer, Rabden Lepcha, Palchok, a doctor and teacher who worked at personnel, as well as visiting members of Evan Nepean, Hugh Richardson, Ernst Schafer, Chagpori before the destruction, who noted that Lhasa nobility. Members of the general public Josef Van is, and Dasang Damdul Tsarong. the main assembly hall had twenty pillars. 14 This probably did not even perceive Chagpori as a Added to these are photographs taken by would indicate an arrangement of four by five place to receive medical care. As a monastery Heinrich Harrer (FIG. V3.6) in 1982, when some pillars and a rectangular dimension of about 11 however, Chagpori attracted visitors and the hill of the ruins of Chagpori were still at the site. by 14 meters. With the hall touching the tower on which it was built was an important part of At some point between 1982 and 1987, these and with rows of smaller rooms flanking the hall Lhasa's sacred geography and a prominent site remaining ruins were removed and replaced as described in a sketch for which the doctor for worship and pilgrimage. by a steel radio mast, which was erected on provided information, 15 we get an impression of a concrete platform and remains there to this the entire plan, which suggests that the axis day. Only small pieces of two corners of the through the center of the tower and the main foundations for outlying buildings seem to have entrance was symmetrical. However, a photo- survived. As the site has been fenced off and graph by the cinematographer Josef Van is, who a few years after the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, entry to the entire hill is forbidden, it has not visited Lhasa in 1956, clearly shows that the main Thubten Gyatso, declared Tibet an independent been possible to carry out a direct survey of the entrance was not situated in the center of the state in 1913 and members of his government site. There are, unfortunately, only a few notes eastern wall but was about 1.5 meters off center and one photographic record of the interior, toward the north (FIG . V3 .5) . Thus the central but these tell us little about the architectural axis would likewise be toward the north, making structure as their focus was the Buddhist the secondary row of rooms to the south wider statues there. 12 than the row at the north. That framework sug- As noted above, the main feature of the building was a cylindrical tower that rose over the surrounding structure, which itself was THE MENTSIKHANG The Mentsikhang was founded in 1916, only gests the size and distribution of spaces as seen in the preliminary ground plan (FIG. V3.7). Under the main floor there would have been flanked by a kitchen and a gatehouse, with a basement, which was partly occupied by the several smaller buildings and residences for top of the original rock of the hill. The basement the monks nearby. Thubten Tsering, previously was accessed by two doors and lighted by a a doctor at Chagpori, described the tower small window. This area most likely provided as "looking like a bag of tsampa," 13 perhaps a storage space for collected herbs and, as because its sloping outer wall makes the tower Thubten Tsering points out, for precious medical wider at the ground and narrower toward the substances. 16 The small separate building to the top. As with all other stone walls in Tibetan north of the main building housed the kitchen buildings, the outer face slopes inward about and functioned as a gate to the monastery, with seven degrees while the interior face is vertical interior stairs that all visitors had to climb (see V3. 9 Thirteenth Dalai Lama with medical scholars and his as a natural result of building without mortar. FIG. V3.8). personal physician Jampa Thubwang (Commissioned by Khyenrab Norbu). Plate 80 of the Tibetan medical paintings (Lhasa set). Lhasa, central Tibet; early 20th century. Pigment on cloth; 86 x 68 em. Mentsikhang Collection The tower itself had three interior floors: the lowest floor was a few steps up from the It is not entirely clear who these visitors were and their reasons for visiting, since the HOFER AND LARSEN : CHAGPORI AND MENTSIKHANG, LHASA 261 initiated several reforms to modernize Tibet and from humble origins named Khyenrab Norbu summaries of many of the most important build a modern nation state. (Mkhyen rab nor bu, 1883- 1962), soon became topics of medicine. 18 To this day, some of his successor and subsequently headed both these texts are among the most wide ly used the concept of Chagpori as a monastic medical the Mentsikhang and Chagpori and intermit- modern works on Tibetan medicine, such as his college, the mission of the Mentsikhang was tently held the post of personal physician to pharmacological books Excellent Vase of Elixirs to teach students from diverse social groups the Dalai Lama. He appears at the bottom-right and Measurements of the Human Body. 19 In line with these reforms and in contrast to rather than on ly Gelugpa monks. Apart from corner of a thangka depicting the Thirteenth the ordained community, students shou ld also Dalai Lama, which was added to the Lhasa set intended as a medical college, its doctors and come from the Tibetan army and lay medical of seventy-n ine medical paintings (F IG . V3 9). students were known to treat many patients. and Tantric lineages, so that they wou ld eventu- Khyenrab Norbu played a leading role in the Although the Mentsikhang was primarily It even became the center for a campaign to ally apply their knowledge outside the Ge lugpa further development of Sowa Rigpa in Lhasa support maternal and chi ld health throughout monasteries and potentially in the service of the during the first half of the twentieth century the region, including the encouragement state and the wider society. The first director of and, among many other achievements, he of parents to order astrologically calculated the institute was Jampa Thubwang, who was built the foundation for the lasting legacy of birth horoscopes, which were carried out at at the time the senior personal physician to the the Mentsikhang . He reformed the medical the institute. The Mentsikhang also arranged Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the highest-ranking curricu lum by reducing the overall period for for the distribution of medical texts, such as monk official (Chigyab Khenpo), in the Tibetan study, and he wrote and introduced his students Khyenrab Norbu's Mirror of the Moon and his government. His brilliant student, a monk to shorter medical treatises that offered concise teacher's Jewel of the Heart, to administrators V3.1 0 Perspective Map of Lhasa from 1912 showing Tengyeling Monastery. After its partial destruction, the Mentsikhang was built to its south in 1916. Private Collection of Knud Larsen, Oslo 262 PART TWO : MEDICINE. BUDDHISM, AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS V3.11 Lhasa Map supposedly from 1936, but showing Tengyeling Monastery (destroyed 1912) intact (left, front). Private Collection, London. Photograph courtesy of Nikolas, John, and DekyiRhodes of all ninety-six districts under the jurisdiction of foothold in central Tibet and who between 1904 suggestion to build an Institute of Medicine the Lhasa government. 20 The historian Stacey and 1936 established three Western medical and Astrology 2 3 The Mentsikhang was built just van Vleet has rightly argued that the building of clinics in central Tibet (the one in Lhasa opening south of a building that had once stood next the Mentsikhang and this particular childcare in 1936). to the Tengyeling Monastery and that can be ca mpaign should be counted as important The partial destruction of the Tengyeling seen on a perspective map from the east-west reforms instigated by and carried out under (Bstan rgyas gling) Monastery in central Lhasa orientation (FIG. V3.1 0). Other early twentieth- the rule of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama 21 It is by the Tibetan government in 1912 for political century perspective drawings of Lhasa also also worth noting that the Tibetan government reasons and the monastery's subsequent loss of show the intact Tengyeling Monastery next chose to support the establishment of an lands 22 meant that the property reverted to the to its park-like grounds although one is dated to 1936, i.e., after the monastery's destruction indigenous Tibetan medical hospital, rather than government. After rejecting th e establishment of a biomedical hospital, an idea keenly sup- of a school using English as the language (FIG. V3.11 ) 2 4 These draw ings, when compared ported by the British, who had gained a political of instruction, the Dalai Lama approved the to other plans (FIG. V3 .12) and an onsite survey HOFER AND LARSEN : CHAGPORI AND MENTSIKHANG. LHASA 263 " · --•lf\1....,. .. .,. ............ ......;; .. - ... : : ::;.::.. ... --_.:. ....,. .. ,.,... ... :: ""!r"':i•\S•· •. - 1... - .. ..,,,. .... ,.._...,..,_, , - V3.12 Map of Lhasa, 1947-48. Drawing by Peter Aufschnaiter ©Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich. Photograph courtesy of Knud Larsen. Peter Aufschnaiter's first ever made geographical map of Lhasa from the 1940s shows the Mentsikhang in the kha section of the plan. It is listed as item 76 in the Tibetan index, captioned with "Government Mentsikhang" (Gshung sman rtsis khang) carried out in 2007 and 2012, help us to confirm reached directly from the courtyard, which is small skylight at the center. The stairs also give the site for the Mentsikhang befo re it was built flanked on all three sides by buildings used as access to the roof, which was probably used for and its modern-day location in relation to the residences, storage facilities, and, in the past, drying herbs. remains ofTengyeling stables. (FIG. V3.13). The main room on the ground floor is a The walls of the building are constructed of twelve-pillar teaching and assembly hall, for Architecture and Design granite, w hich is an indication of its importance, The original Mentsikhang building is a long, as more modest buildings in Lhasa have walls several medical tree murals 25 These were narrow, and symmetrical two-story building of clay bricks or ground-floor wa lls of stone w ith later covered, and in 2006 they were painted upper-floor walls made of clay A reddish-brown over with garish colors 26 In the past, the other (FIG. V3.14), extending about 10 by 54 meters, which Khyenrab Norbu initially commissioned with a long fa <;a de facing a courtyard on the frieze appears at the top of the Mentsikhang central rooms on the ground floor were used south side. The building is divided into three walls, as in all religious buildings to signify for storing herbs and medical materials, as well as for production of medicines, and probably parts, with the middle part protruding 5 meters wealth and power into the courtyard. On either side of the middle simply painted stone and not made up of small held a library. In line with most other traditional section are two entrances giving access to the tamarisk branches painted on the outside as houses in Lhasa, the Mentsikhang has no central spaces on the ground floor and to the was the custom with friezes on religious build- basement. entire first floor. The rooms on the ground- ings that were considered more important. The floor leve l and at both ends of the building are roof of the Mentsikhang is flat and features a (FIG. V3.15). 264 PART TWO: MEDICINE. BUDDHISM , AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS Here the frieze is On the first floor, directly above the narrow storeroom on the ground floor, a skylit corridor gives access to another meeting hall above the the general Lhasa population. It is to be hoped main hall and to a chapel above the large store- that the radio mast that has been standing lands of a monastery that had been partially destroyed because of political conflict was The construction of the Mentsikhang on the room. The chapel, which has only four pillars, on Chagpori Hill in the place of the destroyed features statues of many important Tibetan medical college for several decades will soon perhaps meant "to heal local political divisions" medical scholars and saints. Statues there today be removed, along with the present television as Stacey van Vleet has suggested 29 This new college was a more secular medical institution, are recent replicas (FIG. V3.17); the location of building. A reconstruction of the college on the originals is unknown, as they were removed the site would be a natural step in restoring although Buddhist medical rituals initially played or destroyed during the Cultural Revolution 27 important architectural landmarks in Lhasa . an important role and many of its students were Twentieth-century Developments founded in November 1992 by Trogawa A new Chagpori Medical Institute was still monks. Despite claims by some Communist Party journalists and later historians that the In Tibetan history, Chagpori Medical College Rinpoche (1931 -2 005), in the northeast Indian Mentsikhang admitted female students in in Lhasa is the first documented example town of Darjeeling, 28 which has long been a 1963 for the first time in history, we know of at of a formalized monastic medical institute. thoroughfare for Tibetan traders and attracted least one female student and doctor, Khandro It included within its facilities an important Tibetan exiles since 1959. Trogawa Rinpoche Yangga, who was based at the Mentsikhang as Buddhist temple, where religious practices was a graduate of the Lhasa Chagpori Medical Khyenrab Norbu's personal student and learned were combined with medical studies and which College, who taught widely in India and also cataract surgery from him as early as the 1940s also served as a place of worship and prayer for internationally. (see FIG . 4 .2 4) 30 V3 .13 Detail of a 1997 map of central Lhasa showing the location of Mentsikhang HOFER AND LARSEN : CHAGPORI AND MENTSIKHANG. LHASA 265 N 1 0 D 10 IJ c 0 8 8 tl 0 A tJ 0 2 4 6 8 0 10m V3.14 Ground Plan of Mentsikhang, Lhasa. Original state. ©Knud Larsen and Tsewang Tashi. A: Teaching Hall, B: Storage V3 .15 The old building of the Lhasa Mentsikhang today 266 PART TWO : MEDICINE, BUDDHISM, AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS V3.16 The Mentsikhang during the 1950s and 60s. Photograph shown in an exhibition at the Lhasa Mentsikhang, 2006 In 1961 the Mentsikhang was officially incorporated into the Communist health-care infrastructure of Lhasa City and various reforms were implemented in subsequent years, such as introducing new departments, adding a public clinic, donning white robes, and increasing medical production to meet the demand of a modern public outpatient clinic (F IG . V3.16). In part because the co ll ege had to adapt to the new circumstances by "bio-medica lizing" its appearance and demonstrating socia li st potential, it stayed open even during the Cultura l Revolution (1966-76), although it was largely defunct with much of its library destroyed; most of its staff absent and unable to work because of political turmoil. Such turmoil is vividly depicted in a recent publication of stirring black-and-white photographs of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet.31 The old building of the Mentsikhang is still considered an important building and is vis ited V3.17 Shrine Room inside the old building of the Mentsikhang by Tibetan physicians from throughout Tibet and abroad. Until 2012 a sma ll part of the build- that to our knowledge is unparalleled in Tibet. Medical College located elsewhere in the ing served as the residence of the late Jampa Some texts were saved from the ravages of the city, where more than three hundred students Trinle, the famous scholar-ph ysician, long-term Red Guards and later reinstalled here, but we study for BA, MA, and PhD degrees and director of the institute, and one of the main also know that this collection is the result of graduate from within the Chinese university students of Khyenrab Norbu. A two-story build- active efforts of Mentsikhang staff members system. The most recent sp lit from the institute ing added in about 2000 on the west side of the to acquire medical texts that have surfaced is what is now called TAR Tibetan Medicine Pharmaceutical Factory, which occupies two courtyard houses a sma ll museum featuring since the 1980s all over Tibet, having been the historical development of medicine in Tibet. hidden, often at great personal risk. Since the production sites, one in Lhasa that produces The museum seems to attract few visitors from 1980s, these texts have been studied in an effort medications for Mentsikhang patients and those outside of Tibetan medical circles and is not to "recover and research what has been lost during the Cultural Revolution," 32 and in some of its branches and one outside Lhasa that oper- cases they have also been republished. These Practices (GMP) production rul es discussed Mentsikhang are displayed in the shrine works, along with several private coll ections, have been catalogued, 33 and some of these almost entirely independently of each other, normally open to the public. The few items that have survived from the vast collections of the Chagpori and ates under the stringent Good Manufacturing in chapter 3. All of these institutions operate room cum library at the heart of the new out- original texts have been consulted as part of this although Tibetan medical col lege students sti ll patient department of the Mentsikhang. The publication (see chapter 8). The Mentsikhang pursue their clinical training at the Mentikhang's notable exception are the surviving original also stores surviving parts of woodblock prints in- and outpatient departments, and many seventeenth-century medical paintings, which of Tibetan medical works. of the pharmacology graduates from the are kept in storage. Only recent copies are Since the 1980s, the Mentsikhang has Tibetan Medical College are absorbed into the on display along with new statues of revered been sp lit into severa l new institutions. Only pharmaceutical factory. Under the most recent luminaries of the Tibetan medical tradition. the inpatient and outpatient departments still economic and health reforms, these institutions We also find an ornamenta l copy of the Four remain under the name Mentsikhang. It is linked have been made to operate under a variety of Tantras, written in golden ink on blue paper (see to severa l Tibetan medical branch clinics and partnerships between government and private FIG. 1.2), wh ich was rescued from Chagpori hospitals in the capitals of the four prefectures business investors, wh ich have in many ways before it was destroyed. Important holdings of the Tibet Autonomous Region and in some challenged some important traditional ethica l in this display room are also the holdings of select counties. Teaching has come almost foundations for the teaching, practice, and the Mentsikhang library, a medical co ll ection entire ly under the administration of the Tibetan production of Tibetan medicine. HOFER AND LARSEN: CHAGPORI AND MENTSIKHANG, LHASA 267