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Education in Tibetan Medicine Expands in China
The Tibetan Medicine College in this capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, built with state investment a decade ago, has now become the biggest and most authoritative center for education in Tibetan medicine in China.
According to a spokesman for the college, the tutors and the students enrolled by the college are all from the ethnic Tibetan group. Undergraduates spend five years at the college studying more than 20 subjects. The textbooks are all written in the Tibetan language.
So far, the college has trained 650 students who are now workers in Tibetan medicine in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, as well as Tibet, or as doctors of Tibetan medicine in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The Tibetan Medicine College was designated as a place to train postgraduate students in Tibetan medicine in 1998, and has so far recruited two terms of postgraduate students. There are now 10 students who have been studying for master's degrees in Tibetan medicine at the college, according to the spokesman.
Yangga, 34, who is acting as an English interpreter at the international Tibetan medicine symposium that closed today, was one of Tibet's first four postgraduates in Tibetan medicine.
Born into a herdsman's family in northern Tibet, Yangga was introduced to Tibetan medicine by his uncle. He used to study and give lectures at the Tibetan Medicine Department of Tibet University and the Tibetan Medicine College, and is now studying for a master's degree under well-known scholars including Qamba Chilai, a state-level expert in Tibetan medicine.
Education in Tibetan medicine has gained more and more financial support from the international community over the past few years. With this aid, four secondary Tibetan medicine schools have been set up in Tibet since 1990, offering four to six years' schooling. More than 300 students have graduated from the schools.
In addition to the state-financed Tibetan medicine schools and medical organizations, Tibetan medicine has also been carried forward by way of father teaching son or master coaching apprentice.
Specialists in Tibetan medicine are also invited to write down or dictate their experiences in monumental written works to facilitate the younger generations' study and research in Tibetan medicine.
"Detailed Interpretation of the Four Medical Classics", compiled by a group of specialists including Tsorum Tsenang, head of the Tibetan Medicine College, will soon be published. "Wall Maps of Four Medical Classics, Interpreting the Difficulties in Light of Lapislazuli", dictated by Qamba Chilai, another state- level specialist in Tibetan medicine, is now in the process of compilation.
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