Grapes of the Gods: Sacred Fruits in Himalayan Medicine
This thangka, titled "Blue Lapis Lazuli Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Categories of Medicines," originates from the Menzikang Tibetan Medicine Bureau in Lhasa during the first half of the 20th century. Among the items depicted are licorice slices, grapes, and sea buckthorn fruit. Grapes, noted for their sweet flavor, are said to alleviate lung heat and treat pediatric lung conditions. The accompanying Tibetan text reads: ལོངས་སྤྱོད་མོད་ཀྱང་ལས་ངན་གྱིས། འཇུངས་པས་སྤྱོད་པའི་རང་དབང་མེད། རྒུན་འབྲུམ་སྨིན་པ་ཟ་བའི་ཚེ། ཁྭ་ལ་མཆུ་ནད་རྒྱུན་དུ་འབྱུང། This translates as: "Wealth gained through evil means is short-lived, Misers will find it hard to enjoy blessings, When the grapes are ripe, The crow's beak will be sore.
A note in "The Sayings of Sakya" （ས་སྐྱ་ལེགས་བཤད་）, written by Sakapanditadas （ས་པཎ་；1182-1251）, states that the fable "The Grape and the Crow" is ancient and widely known across religious communities in South Asia. Its purpose is to prompt people to consider karma and engage in good deeds. Furthermore, Buddhists and Jains employ this story to illustrate the harmful nature of selfishness and the value of compassion toward all sentient beings.
From the Rubin Museum collection, a work dating to the first half of the 20th century bears the title 'Blue Lapis Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Earth Medicine, Wood Medicine, and Plain Medicine.' Its detail itemizes the Kashmir white head grape (མགོ་དཀར་རྒུན་འབྲུམ་), with large, reddish-yellow fruit; the Kashmir valley grain grape (ཁ་ཆེའི་འབྲས་ཤོ་རྒུན་འབྲུམ་), which is yellow, pea-sized, and seedless; and two grape types from the Tibetan Kandar region: the Tibetan Kang grape (ཁམས་རྒུན་རིགས་གཉིས་), whose fruit ranges from green to red to purple and is relatively large, and the Tibetan Tabo grape (དྭགས་པོའི་རྒུན་འབྲུམ་), with bluish fruit and a relatively large size. 'Tabo' roughly encompasses parts of present-day Lhoka Lhoyul and Gyaca counties, possibly also some portions of L
On the brink of death, he collapsed from exhaustion on the road. In his final moments, a vision of the cow that had once been his companion appeared before him. The cow pushed her udder against his lips, and sweet milk entered his mouth. Yet when he slowly opened his eyes, he saw not an udder but fruits resembling cow's nipples. Interestingly, the Tibetan language refers to grapes as cow's nipples (བ་ཡི་ནུ་མ་), just as popular folktales in the Kashmir region and northern India liken grapes to cow's nipples.
Gonchok Sonam (དཀོན་མཆོག་བསོད་ནམས་; 1910-1987), a prominent Gelugpa sect lama and local historian, also recorded this tale. He served as president of the "Ladakh Buddhist Association" from 1961 to 1974. In his view, Tibet's early grape cultivation was linked to Central Asia, and he regarded the grapes in the narrative as sacred offerings presented by the fruit goddess for sustenance. Tibetan tradition does include stories that personify grapes as female.
Grapes are commonly called རྒུན་འབྲུམ་(rgun ‘brum) or རྒུན་འབྲུ་(rgun ’bru) in Tibetan, whereas earlier texts and secular writings sometimes use དགུན་འབྲུམ་(dgun ‘brum) or རྒུ་འབྲུམ་(rgu ‘brum) instead. Considerable debate has arisen within academic circles over the etymology of the Tibetan word for "grapes," with three main positions proposed: 1. the term may derive from a Central Asian or North Asian source; 2. the Tibetan words rgun and ’brum/’bru can each carry the sense of "grain" or "particle"; 3.
Going forward, attention may also need to be directed to འབའ་ཤ་(’ba’ sha), a term that denotes black grapes grown in Ali or other western Tibetan areas. In addition, per affixation rules, rgun carries the sense of "prosperous"; together with ’brum/’bru, meaning "grain," it could be rendered as "prosperous grains.
A rhyton is a horn-shaped cup widely used across Eurasian countries. The vessels titled "Awakening wine bottle, wine glass, and rhyton" date from the Tubo period and are held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, though some pieces are noted as belonging to a private collection. These objects are adorned with wild animal motifs and vine patterns.
Within grape culture studies, the central focus is placed on grape cultivation techniques, grape-based beverages (such as grape juice and grape wine), and the winemaking process. "The Song of the Tibetan King Chokrab" was gathered by private institutions near the close of the 20th century.
Evidence from existing archaeological reports and scholarly literature indicates that the Tibetan plateau possessed sophisticated grape-growing methods, largely introduced from the West, as early as the imperial era, with the region’s history of grape-based beverages extending back to the Tubo Empire. Ralpacan, the Tubo ruler who was assassinated by his own ministers in 836 AD, became a notable reference point in later discussions of grape beverages because he was consuming grape wine (gungchang/gun kyems) at the moment of his death.
Even after the empire's collapse, annals continued to document noble wine consumption, for instance, ministers presenting wine to the Renweiba family. Earlier, in histories compiled by later generations—among them ancient manuscripts from Dunhuang—wine had become embedded in the empire's collective memory, employed in religious rites and celebrations. Scholars, too, took pleasure in eating raisins and drinking grape juice.
To Buddhists, non-alcoholic grape juice was praised by the Buddha himself and is regarded as the sweet fruit offered by the Yakshas from the northern region—that is, generally the Kashmir area. Meanwhile, the winemaking history in Tibetan areas commonly known today is frequently linked to French missionaries at salt wells in 1865.
The disciple of Tsongkhapa, Lhodrak Namka Gyeltsen (ལྷོ་བྲག་ནམ་མཁའ་རྒྱལ་པོ་; lived in the 13th to 14th centuries), expanded on this subject, treating the separation of grape juice as a metaphor for guidance in spiritual practice. The Buddha, according to the writings of the Tibetan vinaya master Tsognyawa Serab Zangpo (13th century), had instructed his disciples in the full method of consuming grapes and preparing grape juice.
In the Buddhist concept of generosity, unsqueezed juice does not mean it is absent, and similarly, the unseen karma of generosity is not nonexistent. Just as there is no grape without juice, without a giver, the virtuous karma of generosity will not arise. This relationship also applies to the separation of grape or sugarcane juice. "The Northern Guardian King and his Attendants" 14th century, J.
This article is translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog. In the Asia Art Collection of the Paul Getty Museum, one detail shows a Yaksha on the far left offering fruits and jewels, while the far right depicts a northern forest and the sweet river of the North. Titled "Transmission of Lineage: Lhodrak Namkajeub," the work dates to the late 18th century and was acquired by David Nalin. Such are the glistening grapes of memories past.