The book “Four Tantras” is the fundamental text of the Tibetan medicine. The original set of 77 medical thangkas (paintings) were composed in Lhasa/Tibet from 1687 until 1703 under the aegis of the regent Sangye Gyamtso. It based partly on an old Tibetan text from Rinchesen Zampo (958 – 1055). The main reason to create this illustrations was to avoid confusion when interpreting this old text. The paintings illustrate the entire contents of a seventeenth century commentary on the most fundamental treatise of Tibetan medicine.
(Palace of Buddha Bhaisajyaguru, Master of Remedies)
The Medical Thangka of the Blue Beryll. It shows the Buddha Bhaisajyaguru, the master of remedies on his lotus throne in the centre of his celestial palace. It is situated in the city of Sudasana, the city of healing. The painting follows close to the iconographic structure of a Mandala.
The city of Sudasana is surrounded by four mountains:
- Northern Himavant mountain
- Eastern Gandhamadana mountain
- Southern Vindhya mountain
- Western Malaya mountain
Each area contains plenty of medicine in the form of trees, plants, herbs, animals which is used to cure sick people.
(the Master of Remedies)
The centre of the Medical Thangka shows Buddha Bhaisajyaguru, the master of remedies, sitting on his extraordinary lotus throne carried by two snow lions. In his right hands he helds a myrobalan branch. This splendid elaborate throne is also called “throne of the six ornaments”, regarding to the six mythological animals, which are sitting on both sides of the backrest:
- Garuda [eagle of wisdom]
- two nagas [water gosts]
- two Makaras [beings, combined between fish, sea-elephant and crokodile]
- two gnomes riding goats
- two snow lions and
- two elephants
Source:
Tibetan Medicine Today 