rgyud bzhi

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རྒྱུད་བཞི
Four Medical Tantras, revealed by Drakpa Ng�nshey [RY]

the four Tibetan medical tantras [RY]

4 medical treatises with 156 chapters, SA rtsa rgyud, bshad rgyud, man ngag rgyud, phyi rgyud [JV]

1) four modes of being. 2) Four Tantra Pitakas. See the entry under four classes of tantra [RY]

the four medical tantras, the four modes of being, four tantrapitakas/ classes of tantra [gd] [IW]

(sman) The Four Medical Tantras
The Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā of Vāgbhaṭa (6th -7th c.), translated in 1015 by Rin chen bzang po and the Kashmiri Janardana, was the main Indian medical influence in early Tibet. Chinese traditions were present, and traditions from Persia, Uighur, Tangut and Byzantine are mentioned during the imperal period as well. Strongly influenced by the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā, the Four Medical Tantras of G.yu thog pa the Younger (1112-1203) became in the course of the 13th c. the central canonical text. And like the Indian model for the ayurvedic tradition, the rGyud bzhi remains a central text in the Tibetan medical tradition until today.
Already since the 14th c. there is a controversial debate about the origin of the rGyud bzhi. One tradition, to which adheres the dGe lugs school, advocates a translation from an Indian original, the second tradition advocates a Tibetan origin. A sanskrit original has not yet been found, and Indian sources don't mention the sanskrit title given in the rGyud bzhi. Critics of an Indian origin advance textual passages which are in contradiction with Indian works, or facts which were not known in India. The tradition of a tibetan origin seems to be dominant. Sman gyi byung tshul khog dbubs rgyal mtshan rtse mo 'bar ba by Che rje Zhang ston Zhig po (probably at 1204) is one of the very few early extant tibetan texts on medical history. It treats basically the history of Indian medicine and the place of Vāgbhaṭa and his Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā, which is paramount for the transmission of medical knowledge to Tibet. There is neither mention of the Four Medical Tantras, nor of G.yu thog pa the Elder. According to tradition, the medical tantras were taken from concealment by Grwa pa mNgon shes around 1100, but only started to become gradually well-known with G.yu thog pa the Younger and his students in the decades surrounding the year 1200. Parallel to it, the 'Bum zhi, the medical scripture of Bon, is very close in the chapter titles, suggesting the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā as the most important individual source in both cases. In the Four Medical Tantras one further finds elements from Zhang Zhung, suggesting that it is based on an Indian model, probably the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā, strongly edited by G.yu thog pa the Younger.
With regard to the Materia Medica, there is definetely a turn to indigenious tibetan ressources. In the Rin chen bzang po's translation of the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā ones finds a certain number of tibetan names, but also many sanskrit names simply transliterated. The names and their identifications in the rGyud bzhi are definitely more tibetan.
Johannes Schmidt (talk) 09:34, 21 September 2025 (EDT)