Cure your horse
Trained Tibetan Veterinarian
Shigatse, 1960s
རྟ་ཚོན་པོ་བཞོན་བཞོན་ཏེ་ལྟེབས་པའི་ཐབས་ལ།
དབུགས་རྔུབ་རྐེད་འཆུ་རོ་སྨད་རྔུལ་དང་ལྟེབས་ཀྱིས།
ཆུ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རྔུབས་ལྔ་དྲུག་ཙམ་བླུད་དེ།
རྩ་གཙང་མ་ཁམ་བཅའ་བཅུ་ཙམ་ཟར་བཅུག་ལ་
དེ་ནས་ཁ་ཟིན་པ་དང་ཆུ་ངོམས་པར་ཀླུད་དོ།
A method for treating a horse that breaks its leg after riding it while too fat:
The horse is panting, sweating from the waist and rump down to the lower body, and has a broken leg.
First, make it drink about five or six sips of good water.
Feed it about ten mouthfuls of clean medicinal herbs.
Thus, having fed it sufficient water and fodder, it will recover.
Selected from the ancient Dunhuang Tibetan manuscript P.T.1062, "The Art of Horse Doctoring" (གནའ་རབས་ཀྱི་རྟ་བཅོས་མྱོང་གྲུབ་མ།).
Therapeutic Copper Horse
Late 17th century, private collection
*Mark the areas where the horse is sick or in pain.
རྟ་ལ་ཁྱི་སྨྱོན་གྱིས་རྨུགས་ན།
རྨུགས་པའི་སར་གླ་རྩིའི་ཆུས་བསྐྲུས།
ཁོང་དུ་གཏོང་བའི་སྨན་ནི།
ཨ་རུ་ར་ཤིང་ཀུན་ཤུ་དག་མུ་ཟི་ནག་པོ་
སྔོ་སྐྱི་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་བྱ་རྒོད་སྤོས་སྟག་ཤ་རྣམས་
ཁྱི་སྨྱོན་རང་གི་སྤུ་བསྲེས་ཏེ་གཞོབ་བསྲེགས་ཁོང་དུ་གཏོང་།
སྨན་དེ་རྣམས་མི་ལ་ཡང་ཕན།
When a horse is bitten by a rabid dog:
First, wash the bitten area with water infused with musk.
The medicine to be administered internally is: to mix Chebulic myrobalan, asafoetida, calamus, black sulphur, fruit of the bitter vetch, larkspur, Potentilla, and hair from the rabid dog itself, then burn the mixture over a fire.
Feed this burnt powder to the horse. This remedy is also effective for humans.
Selected from "Treatise on Horses: A Clear Mirror" (རྟ་གཞུང་དངུལ་དཀར་མེ་ལོང་).
Shigatse Veterinarians Preventing and Treating Diseases for Livestock
I remember in the old movie "Stablemates" (1938), the old veterinarian Terry, who treated the horse "Madame Q" belonging to the little boy Mickey, said: "What I can do is treat, what you can do is be there. She knows what you are doing." I believe the veterinarians of Tibet would surely agree with this, and they might add this: Empathy precedes technique; ease coexists with labor. In Tibetan equine studies, the area researchers focus on most is the art of horse doctoring. This is not only because the transmitted texts and oral materials in this field far outnumber those in other branches, but also because the philosophy it upholds best represents Tibetan equine studies: the unity of technical pursuit, ethical care, and the construction of order. Based on this, the medical theories concerning yaks and horses naturally form the foundation of Tibetan veterinary medicine (ཕྱུགས་བཅོས་); healing livestock is not merely a job, but also "righteous duty and spiritual practice."
"Stablemates"
Original Movie Poster, 1938
In mythology, horses contract illnesses due to curses from immortals. Analyzing the ancient classification methods of equine diseases, it becomes clear that most were "occupational diseases" arising from human intervention. In "Tibetan Veterinary Medicine: The Pond of Nectar" (ཕྱུགས་གསོ་བདུད་རྩིའི་རྫིང་བུ།), there are a total of forty-seven entries related to the causes, symptoms, external treatments, and internal treatments of diseases in domestic horses. This book primarily draws from "Treatise on Horses: A Clear Mirror" (rTa gzhung dngul dkar me long). The author has previously introduced Tibetan equine studies texts focused on horse medicine (see Tibetan Equine Studies, Part I), among which there are works dating back to the Tibetan Empire period. However, from a material perspective, the earliest extant text is the Dunhuang P.T.1062 Tibetan manuscript, "The Art of Horse Doctoring" (also called the Manual of Horse Medicine). Only by combining the Dunhuang manuscripts with transmitted literature can we delve deeply into the study of Tibetan equine medicine.
"Tibetan Veterinary Medicine: The Pond of Nectar" Book Cover
1995, Sichuan Nationalities Publishing House
It is generally believed that the ancient Tibetan documents unearthed in Dunhuang and other places have a unique compositional background. On one hand, they are strongly connected to contemporaneous documents from the heartland (promoting the spirit of the kingdom or Tibetan culture). On the other hand, they practically addressed local daily needs. In "The Art of Horse Doctoring," although some causes of disease and specific therapies correspond to other transmitted classical Tibetan equine texts (such as detoxification therapies or bloodletting therapies), the content throughout focuses on explaining how to heal warhorses and tame unruly horses. This is closely linked to the daily lives of military and civilian populations in places like Dunhuang during the period of Tibetan occupation. Dunhuang was originally a multi-ethnic region, so it is possible that "The Art of Horse Doctoring" contains references to the equine medicine of other ethnic groups. However, in the text's expression, terms originating from Tibet still constitute the majority, such as the names of acupuncture points on horses and the names of required medicinal herbs.
"P.T.1062 Tibetan Manuscript" Fragment
"The Art of Horse Doctoring / Manual of Horse Medicine", Unearthed at Dunhuang
Collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
In contrast, in the transmitted classics, horse doctoring inevitably involves various aspects. To discuss it generally: first, prolonging life; second, healing; third, training (health maintenance methods for different horses); and fourth, reproduction. Combining this with the South Asian classic "Shalihotra Samhita" (शालिहोत्रसंहित; see Tibetan Equine Studies, Part I), which was transmitted to Tibet during the later propagation period, one might summarize it thus: what is called eliminating disease and maintaining health is essentially about solidifying the horse's life (རྟའི་ཚེ་བརྟན་པ་). A fine horse is precious; birth and postpartum care are of utmost importance. The life is solidified only when both the mare and foal are safe. "If there is dystocia, one must apply butter on both hands, feel for the foal's head and hooves, and slowly extract it." Furthermore, according to classics held by the royal house of Mustang, people should "offer fumigation rituals for the mare in dystocia, clear her meridians, sing soft tunes, and gently guide her." After the foal is born, a birth celebration ceremony should be held.
"Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas" Cover
By Sienna Craig, Published in 2008
Anthropologist Sienna Craig, in her book "Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas," documented how people in the Mustang region assist with birth and bless foals (a tradition common to Tibetan areas). Having developed deep friendships with local veterinarians, the nineteen-year-old Sienna clearly understood that "the veterinarians not only understood equine physiology and psychology but also applied various concepts from Tibetan medicine (such as the three nyepa) to specific situations." Therefore, the analysis and treatment of equine ailments in Tibet are not only based on the location and symptoms of the disease; practitioners have also constructed a complete theoretical framework and treatment procedures for the art of horse doctoring. "One must distinguish internal and external diseases, know hidden illnesses, remember all the acupuncture points, and be proficient in using medicines; without this knowledge, one cannot treat horses" (different versions have slight variations). As the renowned physician Drakla Norbu (སྟག་བླ་ནོར་བུ་; 1889-1958) said, "Treating a horse is like treating a person."
A veterinarian grinding medicine to treat a horse's bone fracture
A veterinarian performing a blessing ceremony for a sick horse
For this very reason, just like doctors who treat humans, the people of the plateau hold veterinarians to equally strict standards. A Tibetan proverb says: "A skilled veterinarian makes the region renowned" (ཕྱུགས་བཅོས་པ་མཁས་ན་ཡུལ་འདི་སྙན་གྲགས་ཆེ།), and among them, a good doctor capable of treating horses is even rarer (aligning with the concepts of modern veterinary medicine).
Seven Precious Possessions of a King: The Precious Horse
Sakya Monastery