On Traditional Mongolian Medicine 

The following memoirs are excerpts from the unpublished diary of  Lama Chimpa, written in the 1950s, in India, which are published here with the kind permission of the author.
 
 
 
 
 

 It is hardly necessary to emphasize that Mongolia is definitely not far behind if not advanced in the modern medical sciences. Historically, when the entire world was still backward in the field of medical science, the Mongols were quite advanced in their own way of composing medicines and healing ailments. Mongolian traditional doctors were famous, even in Tibet and China. In Tibet, some of the Dalai Lama’s private physicians were Mongols. Tibetans used to call the Mongol doctors “Emchi-la” (Tib. em chi) which is the Mongolian term for doctor, “-la” (Tib. lags), being the respectful suffix, used while addressing the physician. “Emchi-la” became the common form to address traditional doctors, both in Mongolia and Tibet.

 In China, each of the Manchu kings used to keep a Mongol Emchi as his personal doctor. Mongolian physicians were very good in diagnosing illnesses. They examined the urine and stool, and read the pulse accurately. Those foreigners who had observed Mongol Emchis checking their patients, wrote: “When illness attacks anyone, his friends run to the nearest monastery for a Lama doctor, whose first reaction was not to visit the patient, but to run his fingers over both wrists of the messenger simultaneously and feel the pulse, like the fingers of a musician run over the strings of an instrument. The Chinese physicians feel both pulses also, but in succession.”

 It is not true to say, that the Mongol pharmacopoeia rejects all mineral chemistry. There are many discussions about the utility of minerals in our medical texts. Mongol Emchis used a lot of minerals skilfully in their medical compositions. I myself have seen our doctors compounding medicines in our monastery pharmacies at Drepung and Kumbum. Some of them were preparing dust from iron, gold, copper etc., while others were crushing various stones for making medicines. However, herbs and plants form the main part of Mongolian medical compositions.

 From a lay man’s point of view, almost everything was used for preparing medicine by the Mongol Emchis. It is said that, once a medical teacher, during an examination, had sent his students to the forest, asking them to collect all those plants which cannot be used as medicines. All the students returned with heaps of plants, but one of them returned with empty hands, saying: “There is nothing in the forest which has no medical value”. That student received his full marks, and later on, he became a famous doctor. So goes the legend.
 
 Medicines were made from all kinds of material. Sometimes, some physicians used only water for treatment, which is not less interesting. Such doctors collected water from various sources: from the sea, the top of the mountains, streams, wells, lakes, even dew drops, rain water, melted snow water, etc., and kept them in different containers for months and years, exposed to various temperatures. Some of such healing waters are boiled, others kept in the sun for a certain period of time. Some people have blind faith in water treatment. It is said, that the water remedies are especially very good for acidic problems and stomach upsets.

 No parts of the plants are left out for medical purposes. The roots, sap and flowers, etc. are all used for preparing medicine. Especially, not a single flower is considered useless for one or the other medical composition. Once I heard a  Mongol Emchi saying “All those flowers, on which butterflies sit, are ready medicine for various diseases. One can eat such flowers without any hesitation. A flower rejected by the butterflies is poisonous, but it can become medicine, when it is properly composed.” Like a notorious thief who can become a good and useful person when he is properly trained and taught, a poisonous plant can become a very effective medicine. In fact, the Emchis use medicines prepared by poisonous plants when the disease is severe.

 Besides their medical treatment, the Mongolian Emchis of those days had many other methods of healing diseases, including psychological and spiritual treatment. In certain cases of pain or swellings, for example, they used to write some spells and stick it on the effected parts of the patient’s body, or roll the slip and ask the patient to swallow it. Unfortunately, the French Fathers, M. Huc and W. Gabet, had misunderstood this treatment.

 These missionaries wrote: “If the Lama doctor happens not to have any medicine with him, he is by no means disconcerted; he writes the names of the medicines upon scraps of paper, moistens the paper with his saliva” - here, they have used the word ‘saliva’ deliberately-  “because the Lama doctor used to spell some Mantra while writing the charms and thereafter blew on it with his mouth in order to give more strength to the remedy.” And the ignorant writers have continued their descriptions with these words: “. . . and rolls them up into pills , which the patient tosses down with the same perfect confidence as though they were genuine medicaments. To swallow the name of a remedy, or the remedy itself, say the Tartars, is precisely the same thing”.

 Such a book written in a different cultural background may be considered very interesting by those readers who are ignorant about the subject. But we, who have been fully trained in Buddhist thought, only used to laugh about such writings. Theses missionaries also wrote the following: “ The Lama doctors use prayer mediums when their medical method fails. If the patient is very poor, the Lama troubles himself with neither prayer nor pill, but goes away, recommending his friends to wait with patience until the sick person gets better or dies”.  Now, what can we get from this? Can any level headed person help but ignore such remarks?

 The Mongolian Buddhists were known all over for their generosity and religious mindedness. They could never behave like this with a sick person as a rule, as well as by their nature. They would give in fact more attention to a sick person, if he was poor.

 The Mongol Emchis of those days also used to perform major surgery painlessly, such as opening the chest, stomach, etc., with their ancient methods.

 The Mongolian tradition of Moxibustion, i.e. burning herbs over certain points on the skin, was later integrated into the Tibetan medical system and became known as ‘Horgi Metza’ (Tib. hor gyi me btza’) or ‘Sogpo Metza’ (Tib. sog po me btza’; lit. “Mongolian fire burning”).
 
 Even nowadays, after the development of modern medical treatments, some people still prefer to undergo traditional treatment as practised by the Lama doctors in Mongolia.

 Bone setting in Mongolia is a very interesting subject indeed. Soon after an accidental bone fracture or a dislocation of a bone, the Mongols think about nothing else than approaching the “Bariachi”, a bone setter, who has no medicines and no surgical instruments. The Bariachi just holds the fractured or dislocated part of the sufferer’s body with his or her own hands, twisting it here and there, for some time, without any pain on the patient. This born healer, who is just a lay man, neither spells any charms nor performs any rituals, but will then advice the patient to take some rest. These bone setters cure bone disorders perfectly. After the treatment, there will be no complain at all, however serious the injury may be. The injured person will be normal soon after getting such a treatment. The strange thing about this treatment is, that these healers have neither any medical knowledge nor do they know any charms or magic. They are just ordinary lay persons having no training of any kind. They are born as bone setters. Their hands work as magical instruments. Such healers come from a family of traditional bone setters. Their sons and daughters are all bone setters. At times, the  children of such a family do the same work as their elders. But generally they do not allow their young children to practise bone setting, as they do the treatment on contract, like a business. If the case is serious and the patient is wealthy, they will demand more money for the treatment. Otherwise, they are quite generous and do not take any fee from a poor person. But if a wealthy person does not pay adequately, the treatment may be defective. In this case, it is not possible for the patients to approach another such healer, because, according to their professional rule, no one can interfere with a case which is dealt with by another traditional healer. So, a Mongolian knows very well that he has no alternative but to pay whatever the bone setter demands, if he wants to be cured perfectly.

 In Mongolia, it is assumed, that the ‘Bariachi’ have the bone setting secret in their blood. But what kind of elements are really working behind such a magic-like practice is yet to be researched. In my younger days, I heard the elders saying, that the lineage of these bone setters was declining, and there was a danger of the tradition becoming extinct. If this happens, it will be a great loss for the entire Mongolian race. I just hope, that the Mongolian Government does something for the survival of this useful tradition.

 In Mongolia, we have another kind of therapy, called ‘Dom’, and which again has nothing to do with medical science and religious beliefs. This kind of ‘home remedies’ also cannot be claimed to be based on superstitions. I myself have found, that these treatments work sometimes like magic. For example, if someone has trouble in his left eye, he should touch the affected eye with his right knee for seven times, early in the morning, before taking any food or drink. That will cure it! If a child cannot sleep comfortably, and  awakes suddenly or weeps without any obvious reason, draw a picture of a donkey and hang it over the child’s bed. It will sleep well! If you have a headache, take a cup of hot tea, if there is any stomach trouble, observe fasting, if you have some mental unrest, just start counting your breath. These measures will reduce the trouble!
 
 Then, of course, the spiritual healing therapies were preferred by the Mongols over a long period of time. When the illness is very serious, the relatives of the sick person consult a spiritual Lama for the possibilities of curing the diseases by means of prayers and religious rites, or they go to the monasteries and offer prayers, lights and incense to the gods, for the sick man’s quick recovery. And if the sick person is wealthy, he would give money to each of the monks in the monastery, to perform group prayers. Sometimes, people used to build a temple or a pagoda for earning virtue and good merits, while being freed from their illness. The general belief of the religious Mongols were, that one falls ill as a result of the influence of an evil spirit, which can be pacified only through religious rites and sacrifice of wealth.

These are a few practical examples of traditional Mongolian medicine, as I remember them from my own experiences in Mongolia, during the 1930s and 1940s.

LAMA CHIMPA, born in 1928 in Inner Mongolia, received his basic education at Hoshion Sume and Togatu Sume monasteries. After further education at Young Ho Kung Monastery, Beijing, China, he completed his higher monastic education at Drepung and Kumbum monasteries, in Tibet, and was awarded the Rabjampa Degree (equivalent to Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy) at Kumbum. He then came to India, in 1951, where he assisted Dr. George N. Roerich in compiling a Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, in Kalimpong. Thereafter, he taught and worked for nine years at the  International Academy of Indian Culture in Nagpur and Delhi (1952-1961). He also taught at the Department of Buddhist Studies, Delhi University. He assisted Dr. Raghu Vira and Dr. Lokesh Chandra in compiling the Mongolian-Sanskrit dictionary. From 1962 onwards, he taught Tibetan language and literature at Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan from where he retired in 1993. Lama Chimpa has various books and publications on Tibetan Studies to his credit, and is Patron and Trustee of International Trust of Traditional Medicine, now settled in Kalimpong.
 

  
LAMA CHIMPA
Shanti Niwas, Madhuban
Kalimpong 734 301, WB India
phone: 91-(0)3552-255944

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