Key Texts
The foundational manuscripts of Tibetan medicine — the rGyud-bzhi, Blue Beryl commentary, and the medical tantras that encode twelve centuries of healing knowledge.
bDud-rtsi sNying-po
Rinchen Zangpo's eleventh-century Tibetan translation of Vagbhata's Ashtanga Hridaya Samhita, preserved in the Tengyur and standing as the canonical Tibetan Ayurvedic classic.
bShad-rgyud (The Explanatory Tantra)
The Explanatory Tantra, second of the four tantras, 31 chapters covering anatomy, embryology, the three nyes pa in detail, the seven bodily constituents, hygiene, and pharmacological theory.
Lhan-thabs
Desi Sangye Gyatso's late seventeenth-century supplementary prescription manual, designed as the practical clinical companion to the rGyud-bzhi and the Blue Beryl commentary.
Man-ngag rgyud (The Instructional Tantra)
The Instructional Tantra, third and longest of the four tantras, 92 chapters of clinical protocols treating specific diseases from humoral disorders and fevers through pediatrics, gynecology, wound medicine, poisoning, and rejuvenation.
Me-tog Phreng-ba
The earliest systematic Tibetan materia medica, attributed to Yuthog Yonten Gonpo the Elder, organizing medicinal plants, minerals, and animal substances by taste, potency, post-digestive effect, and nyes pa application.
Phyi-ma rgyud
The fourth tantra of the rGyud-bzhi, covering pulse and urine diagnosis, compound pharmacy, and the cleansing therapies that define Sowa Rigpa's clinical repertoire.
rGyud-bzhi (The Four Medical Tantras)
The root scripture of Tibetan medicine, organized as four tantras covering theory, anatomy, clinical treatment, and pharmacology, synthesizing Ayurvedic, Greco-Arabic, Chinese, and indigenous Tibetan healing traditions.
rTsa-rgyud (The Root Tantra)
The Root Tantra, first and shortest of the four tantras, presenting the entire Tibetan medical system in six chapters through the Tree of Medicine simile.
Shel-gong Shel-phreng
The two-part early-eighteenth-century materia medica by Deumar Geshe Tenzin Phuntsok, cataloging over 2,000 substances and serving as the standard pharmacological reference in contemporary Sowa Rigpa practice.
Somaraja
A pre-rGyud-bzhi medical compendium of Indic origin surviving in Tibetan translation from the early imperial period, representing the Ayurvedic layer absorbed into the foundations of Sowa Rigpa.
Vaidurya sNgon-po
The definitive four-volume commentary on the rGyud-bzhi by Desi Sangye Gyatso (1687–88), paired with the 79 Medical Paintings and established as the interpretive standard for all subsequent Sowa Rigpa scholarship.
Zin-tig
Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje's fifteenth-century clinical manual, recording the working formulations and bedside diagnostic notes that became a foundation text of the Zur school of Sowa Rigpa.