As a Western physician, I’m interested in Tibetan medicine because four generations of physicians in my family, educated in European schools, have combined Western and Tibetan medicine in their practice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We learned Tibetan medicine in our ancestral home in Russia’s Asian part: the Buryat Republic. This is one of the few places outside of Tibet where Tibetan culture has continued to flourish 3, 7.

Tibetan medicine has drawn Western physicians’ interest in recent years because of clinical evidence of its practical value 1. Practitioners at the Tibetan Medical Institute in Dharamsala, India, now frequently visit American and European universities, where they try to lecture on the theory and practice of Tibetan medicine. However, communicating Tibetan medicine’s practical value to Western practitioners faces obstacles because these two medical cultures and philosophies differ fundamentally.

Tibetan medicine is rooted in empirical ancient traditions, with its first written document dating to about 1,300 years ago 8, 9. Tibetologists generally agree that this medical system developed under the influence of Indian philosophy and Ayurvedic medicine. However, at least at the beginning of the Tibetan Empire, that knowledge was primarily Western (i.e., Greek) and secondarily Chinese in origin 10.

The Tibetan Empire, which lasted from the seventh to the ninth centuries, extended south to the Ganges plain, north to Samarkand, and included part of China 8. The empire’s vast, culturally varied territory influenced the development of Tibetan medicine. Buddhism came to Tibet from India, providing a philosophy that became essential to medical education and knowledge in that country 8, 9. Symbolically, Buddha holds an important place in Tibet’s medical hierarchy. One of his titles there is “Supreme Physician,” and he is often thought of as the “Tibetan Aesculapius.”

The Tibetan king Ti-song-De-tsen invited Padma-Sambhava, a famous Buddhist teacher from the College of Nalanda in India, to Tibet in the 8th century AD. The three kings who ruled the Tibetan Empire, in chronological order, were Song-tsen Gam-po, Ti-song De-tsen, and Rolpa-chon. They are regarded as the most prominent figures in Tibetan history. Beyond introducing Buddhism, their reigns were marked by a medical convention held between 755 and 797 AD at Samye, southeast of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet 11. During that meeting, renowned physicians from Persia, Greece, India, China, Afghanistan, Nepal, East Turkestan, and Kashmir translated their medical works into Tibetan.

The eighth and ninth centuries are also remembered in the history of Tibetan medicine through the work of a physician known as the “Elder gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po,” or the “Excellent Protector.” Over his 120-year life, the Elder earned a reputation as a charismatic teacher. He was probably the first to compile the scattered texts on Tibetan techniques of diagnosis and treatment 12. One of his descendants, the “Younger gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po,” is credited with adding a broad body of knowledge to the canon textbook of Tibetan medicine, the yGyud-bzhi. In fact, the original yGyud-bzhi (pronounced Zud-shi, meaning “Four Roots”) was brought to Tibet from India during the Empire’s active period. According to one source, the book was written originally in Sanskrit in the fourth century. Most likely, Vairochana translated it into Tibetan in the eighth century, with the assistance of the Tibetan physician Zla-ba mNon-dgha 9. That translation was presented to Padma-Sambhava, the famous teacher of Buddhism, who became skeptical that most physicians of the time could readily understand and appreciate the yGyud-bzhi. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that ancient work was translated from Tibetan and Mongolian into Russian by my granduncles Dr. Alexander Badmaev and Dr. Peter Badmaev 14.

Historically, medical education in Tibet has been based on a highly structured system, with Buddhist monasteries functioning as medical schools 9. The first medical college in Tibet, Kong-po-menlung, was built in the eighth century at Lhasa. Among the medical schools established since then, the best known are the Chagpori Medical College, built in the seventeenth century, and Mentsi Khang, built in 1915, both in Lhasa. Since 1959, the Tibetan Medical Institute in Dharamsala, India, has upheld this medical tradition.

Tibetan medicine has also been practiced in Mongolia, where it was introduced in the year 1235 by the physician Sakaja, who cured Godon, the ruler of that country, of a form of paralysis15. In recognition of Tibet’s contribution to medical knowledge and Buddhist teachings in Mongolia, the Mongolian people awarded the ruling priest-prince of Tibet the Mongolian title “Dalai-Lama,” meaning “Ocean Priest,” in 1547 16. In the eighteenth century, Tibetans brought Tibetan medicine from Mongolia to Russia’s Asian part, and both medicine and Buddhism flourished in the Buryat Russian Republic.

Unlike Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine came to the West’s attention relatively recently, in the mid-nineteenth century. The pioneers were Alexander Csoma de Koros, a Hungarian “hero of learning, ” who had spent years in seclusion in Tibetan monasteries studying the language and Tibetan medical treatises 17. The other pioneer was my ancestral Buryat physician, Dr. Sul-Tim-Badma, who, in recognition of his medical skills, was invited to the European part of Russia in the 1850s by the then governor of Siberia, Muraviev Amurski. Later, Dr. Sul-Tim-Badma settled in St. Petersburg and changed his name to Dr. Alexander Badmaev 2, 3.

Alexander was soon followed to St. Petersburg by his younger brother Dr. Peter Badmaev, whose Buryat name was Zham-saran. Both Alexander and Peter are well-known figures in recent Russian history for their ties to the last two Russian emperors 18.

Both Badmaevs offered their own interpretation of Tibetan medicine, which can now be seen as an effort to integrate traditional knowledge with mainstream (allopathic) medicine. Not everyone agreed with their approach, and they were at times criticized for presenting an overly simplified version of Tibetan medical knowledge.

However, they enjoyed a reputation as good doctors. Pyotr was also a successful entrepreneur, establishing a Tibetan clinic at Poklonnaya Gora in St. Petersburg where in-patients and out-patients were seen and treated, and young adepts of Tibetan medicine were trained.

Both Badmaevs emphasized a practical rather than esoteric approach to Tibetan medicine, stressing to their Western colleagues and patients alike that this non-conventional medical system is based on logic and can therefore be confirmed by science. 14 Their thought process centered around principles which are touched upon by today’s integrative or complementary medicine

• an abrupt insult does not cause the majority of diseases but results from long-standing abuse of the organism;
• the gastrointestinal system is central in the pathogenesis of most diseases;
• any disease affects all the organs and body systems, despite the obvious manifestation associated with the body organ/system affected most;
• the role of any treatment is to support, but not replace, the organism’s natural defense mechanism against disease.

Uncharacteristically for the Tibetan way of teaching, the Badmaevs used little Sanskrit terminology and instead used descriptive language to explain their diagnostic and therapeutic approach, i.e., maintaining that most diseases result from a long-standing pathological process and that effective treatments should aim for a correspondingly gradual recovery. To implement therapy-related improvement gradually, drug treatment usually starts at one-third of the maximum therapeutic dose over several weeks. Based on the individual patient’s response, the dose may be increased and, once the therapeutic goal is reached, gradually tapered. Usually, therapy spans one to three months and is followed by a one-month break and re-evaluation. If improvement has not been achieved, the treatment cycle is repeated. The one-month break between cycles was designed not only to re-evaluate the condition but, in principle, to strengthen the organism’s physiological defenses against the disease, often using Tibetan body massage, which my grandfather called “dry surgery” 1.

While in St. Petersburg, Alexander and Peter Badmaev Sr. maintained close contact with their homeland, a source of herbs and minerals for their botanical formulae and, more importantly, a source of talented and knowledgeable medical students and professionals. Among those Buryats who joined Pyotr in St. Petersburg was my grandfather Jamyan-Badma, later known as Dr. Vladimir Nikolayevich Badmaev. He took his middle name from his godfather, the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II.

At age twelve, around 1896, Vladimir Sr.’s uncle, Peter Sr., brought him to St. Petersburg, where he continued his education at the Tibetan medical complex at Poklonnaya Gora. After graduating from high school, Vladimir entered the Military Medical School in Moscow, where he earned a physician’s diploma. After the 1917 Revolution in Russia, an almost 40-year-old Badmaev escaped to Poland, where he obtained a license to practice medicine. The family name changed further to Badmajeff and Badmajew during the odyssey to the West, and is now spelled Badmaev.

In his medical practice, Dr. Vladimir Badmaev, Sr. combined Western and Tibetan medical knowledge. As a medical professional, he faced double standards from the people toward his practice. Officially, his medicine was controversial and even held in contempt by the academicians. Meanwhile, the number of patients in his office kept growing, including prominent public figures such as the president of the Second Polish Republic, Ignacy Mościcki, the Polish writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, and the aristocratic Krasinski family.

According to the tradition carried in my family, herbal treatments have a certain regimen 1,18,19. Treatment usually starts with a digestive formulation because, in Tibetan medicine, disease is primarily seen as the result of the cumulative effects of long-standing poor nutrition. Once the nutritional pathology is managed, the next step is to treat the primary disease. Nutrition is central in the theory and practice of Tibetan medicine. According to this concept, seasonal menu adjustments can prevent disease by meeting changing nutritional requirements. Food taste is the single most important consideration in defining proper nutrition and preventive medicine across the seasons. Tibetan pharmacotherapy is based on the concept of proper nutrition, and my family tradition passed down herbal and mineral formulae referred to as “condensed food” for specific disease conditions.

The Tibetan herbal formulations as practiced in my family have been composed of several herbal and/or mineral ingredients. These have been arranged based on triadic philosophy derived from Ayurveda into three therapeutic groups of ingredients occurring in each formula:

1. the main acting ingredients,
2. the ingredients which support the main action, and
3. the ingredients that prevent any untoward effects of the first two groups and increase gastrointestinal bioavailability of the active principles.

Tibetan herbal therapy plays an important role in the overall approach to treating disease. Still, a technology devised by man to fight disease cannot be as helpful as the body’s own means of resolving the pathology. Before prescribing any specific formulation, a physician ensures the patient understands the overall approach to the disease. During critical moments, specific treatments should support these natural means. But, in the first place, the patient should be maintained in good shape by: 1) proper nutrition, 2) good life habits, 3) proper adjustment to the seasons of the year, and 4) awareness by the individual of his/hers physical and psychological predispositions. To fulfill these four conditions of well-being, a man should guide themselves with awareness, willpower, and compassion. These three aspects, based on the triadic philosophy, are called Chi, Schara, and Badahan in the Buryat language, corresponding to Vata, Pitta, and Kapha in Ayurveda.

In modern medicine, there is, regrettably, little recognition of moral values as a means of disease prevention and treatment. Indirectly, contemporary Western medical practice is recognizing this void, and some are restoring and expanding the role of the family physician so patients are approached in a wholesome, not specialty-driven, way. Communication with a patient in Tibetan medicine is a critical part of a doctor’s office visit, with patients not only acknowledging physician recommendations but understanding the principle. The optimal outcome is for the patient to develop a health-care philosophy, identify with it, and further propagate it. This simple approach creates an efficient system for preventing disease and maintaining long-term health.

The above-discussed doctor-to-patient recommendations were given to patients during office visits by my grandfather Vladimir. His patients not only acknowledged them but generally received and understood them well. In addition to his legacy with patients, Dr. Badmaev preserved his interpretation of Tibetan medical concepts in four books published in the 1930s and two journals he edited quarterly (1920s-1930s) 12, 13. Dr. Vladimir Badmaev Sr. died in 1961 in Poland.

Vladimir Sr.’s son, Peter Jr., named after Peter Badmaev Sr., graduated from the Medical Academy in Lodz, Poland, became a successful surgeon, and carried the tradition of Tibetan medicine to Switzerland and then to the USA. Peter faced the dilemma of a physician shaped by modern training. Although well-versed in Tibetan medicine through father-to-son teachings, he was also acutely aware of the spectacular feast of contemporary Western medicine.

My interest in and knowledge of Tibetan medicine did not begin with father-to-son teachings, since my father, Peter, started his journey West when I was barely a teenager. That brings me to an intriguing point: what has kept the family tradition going even without direct father-to-son input?

My conscientious interest in Tibetan medicine began in the late 1970s, after I earned an MD and began working on a PhD thesis in the Department of Microbiology at my alma mater, the Medical School at Bialystok, Poland. In the early 1980s, after immigrating to the USA and following the usual residency path to advance my medical career, I began building a research program on traditional Tibetan formulas and individual ingredients from Ayurveda and Tibetan (Indo-Tibetan) materia medica. My mission was to investigate Tibetan medicine scientifically, oversee clinical studies on Tibetan herbal formulae, and ultimately establish Tibetan and Ayurvedic medical traditions in the West, leading to a new generation of drugs which I described as the interactive nutrient process based on a generative AI 20.

My nearly three decades of experience indicate that although Western society’s overall education is analytical and favors single-component drugs, there is also a growing understanding that herbal formulations can be advantageous for treating ailments in which known synthetic drugs and allopathic methods have failed.

In fact, the multi-component Tibetan formulae and allopathic treatments could be complementary in the following ways:

• safety and efficacy of a synthetic drug can be improved by scientific evaluation and lessons drawn from a three-group design of the formulae;
• treatment of multi-factorial and chronic diseases requiring long-term treatment is safer and more efficacious with Tibetan formulae;
• there have been no reported negative interactions among the Tibetan formulae practiced and researched by the Badmaevs and commonly used synthetic drugs;
• expert use of numerous gastrointestinal formulae in the Badmaev tradition, with regulatory action on the exocrine and endocrine functions of the digestive tract, sustains functions often compromised by the use of many synthetic drugs.

In conclusion, introducing Tibetan medicine and integrating its principles into Western medical practice can improve existing healthcare considerably in many ways. It is not only advanced technology that allows people to be and feel healthier. Despite tremendous advancement in medical technology, we, as a society, are not healthier. It suffices to observe that man’s work, his thoughts, and the outcomes of his deeds are chiefly directed toward destruction and based on short-sighted goals. Today, economic and political life has become a thoughtless game of chance; the cult of group and State power has overshadowed humanity’s real aims. Regrettably, modern health care has become an integral part of this bureaucratic and technocratic system.

The medical tradition, as I know it, stresses an unusual approach to health care, where a man should guide himself by moral values, with compassion as the ultimate goal. As unusual as it may sound, however, recognizing moral values as a means of well-being and an integral part of the treatment method would be a meaningful step toward better medicine. Perhaps we should look to the past, and only then to the future.

References

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