Mantras and Rituals in Tibetan Medicine

This article will explore the relationship between Tibetan medicine and Tibetan Buddhism by analyzing early Tibetan medical treatises. It will investigate mantras, meditative visualizations, and rituals that were used to prevent and to cure diseases and will study their medical context. Some of the questions addressed will be: Are these techniques employed in the case of special diseases or at particular stages of medical treatment? If so, how firmly are they established in medical texts? Are they just accessary parts and not really “medical,” or do they form an integral part of medical expertise in premodern Tibet? This article will thus question our current understanding of Tibetan medicine from an emic textual perspective on healing practices.