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Modern Science, Technology Rejuvenating Tibetan Medicine
Modern science and technology have saved many aspects of Tibetan medicine from being lost, according to an international symposium on Tibetan medicine, which closed July 17.
Modern science and technology can also help improve the effectiveness of Tibetan medicine and the medical skills of Tibetan doctors in treating diseases, according to experts who are attending the three-day symposium on Tibetan medicine in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Rinwang, vice-president of the Beijing College of Tibetan Medicine and an expert in cardiovascular diseases, said that though the over-2,000-year-old Tibetan medicine has many unique ways for treating diseases, modern medical equipment can help Tibetan doctors diagnose more accurately and thus improve the effectiveness of Tibetan medicine.
Using modern scientific and technological methods, experts have explained some of the ways used by Tibetan doctors in treating diseases, including bloodletting.
Documents on Tibetan medicine have general expositions about the tools, diagnoses and operations involving bloodletting, but the explanations can not give the accurate location of the 77 pulses for bloodletting. Tibetan doctors can not even conduct operation due to the too-simple depiction, and the skill has almost been lost.
In 1994, a team of experts on Tibetan medicine, acupuncture and dissection started a two-year research program on the skill. They identified the locations of all the original 77 bloodletting pulses and added 24 more new ones.
Chu Guoben, president of the China Association for Ethnic Medicines, said that modern science and technology not only help improve the accuracy of Tibetan medicine in diagnosing diseases, but also have unveiled a series of secrets of Tibetan medicine.
Modern science and technology have also helped people both at home and abroad to have a better understanding of the scientific nature of ethnic medicines, thus promoting the rapid development of Tibetan medicine, Chu said.
China now has more than 20 types of Tibetan medicines in the country's pharmacopoeia, and 336 kinds of Tibetan medicines are produced in accordance with ministerial-level standards. The country now has 57 hospitals of Tibetan medicine, and 35 types of Tibetan medicines are used by more than 300 hospitals in China.
Qamba Chilai, honorary president of the College of Tibetan Medicine here, said, "Tibetan medicine is playing an important role on the national and even the world stage of medicine."
Tibetan medicine is a traditional medicine system developed by the Tibetan people based on their experience in life and production. It widely absorbed the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine, ancient Indian medicine and ancient Arabian medicine.
Clinical use has proved that the Tibetan medicine is especially effective for treating diseases of the digestive and cardiovascular systems, and immune diseases.
However, for thousands of years, Tibetan medicine information was kept inside temples and lamaseries in Tibet. Tibetan doctors never categorized the specialties of Tibetan medicine and never established files for patients.
China started building a modern Tibetan medicine system involving medical treatment, teaching, scientific research and the manufacturing of Tibetan medicines 20 years ago.
Institutions engaged in teaching and research on Tibetan medicine and a group of modern Tibetan medicine factories have been established in Tibet, and the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu.
Experts have conducted a series of qualitative and quantitative analyses on more than 1,000 types of Tibetan medicines regarding their names, species, ingredients, functions and doses, and standardized the production of Tibetan medicines.
Development of new Tibetan medicines is going smoothly with the help of modern science and technology. Two types of the new medicines, including a kind of plaster which helps ease aches, have been exported to the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.
Chu Guoben said bio-engineering, gene projects and other modern technologies pose a challenge for Tibetan medicine, but they can also help promote its development.
Tibetan medicine will make full use of modern science and technology for further development to meet the requirements of modern society, Chu said.
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