import Media from './components/media'; import { Gallery } from './components/wrappers';

Description:

Medical textbook with classification of medicinal substances/plants and their medical uses

Title: ༄། །བདུད་ནད་གཞོམ་པའི་གཉེན་པོ་རྩི་སྨན་གྱི་ནུས་པ་རྐྱང་བཤད་གསལ་སྟོན་དྲི་མེད་ཤེལ་གོང་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། [bdud nad gzhom pa'i gnyen po rtsi sman gyi nus pa rkyang bshad gsal ston dri med shel gong zhes bya ba bzhugs so//]

Object biography

Drongshar, Tsering, Mathias Fermer and Uwe Niebuhr. Annotated Catalogue of the Text Collection of René Nebesky-Wojkowitz (1923–1959) at the Weltmuseum Wien. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien. (forthcoming 2024).

Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René. 1958. "Tibetan blockprints and manuscripts in possession of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna." Archiv für Völkerkunde 13, 196–198: No. 134.475c; Title: bDud nad gzhom pa'i gnyen po rtsi sman gyi nus pa rkyang bshad gsal ston dri med shel gong zhes bya ba bzhugs so; Abbreviated title: Shel gong; Blockprint, 25 folios; size 53x8 cms; A medical book which has been composed by bsTan 'dzin phun tshogs, a lama-physician who lived in the East Tibetan monastery of Derge (sDe dge) around the beginning of the last century. [n47: Compare p. XXIV of Unkrig's introduction to Korvin-Krasinski's Die tibetische Medizinphilosophie.] The whole text is written in the form of a poem, each line consisting of nine syllables. In an introductory passage are enumerated the various general propensities of medicinal substances. Then follows the enumeration of 915 different medicines classified in thirteen main groups, which in turn are subdivided into various subgroups. The text, which is sometimes ambiquous on account of abbreviations necessitated by the metre, explains the way in which each medicine (or group of medicinal substance) acts; 1. Preacious substances of jewels (rin po che) which are divided into two main branches: a) the most excellent (mchog) and b) the ordinary ones (phal ba) which in turn are subdivided into non-melteble (mi bzhu'i khams) and melteble (bzhu'i khams) substances; 2. Medicinal stones (rdo sman) of which also two branches exist: melteble and non-melteble stones; 3. Medicinal earths (sa sman) of natural origin (or "self sprung", rang byung) and artificial ones (bcos ma); 4. Medicinal juices (rtsi sman). This group contains the most important medicinal juice of both vegetable and animal origin, as e.g. the juice of cloves (li shi), of betelnut (sug smel), of safron (gur kum), or, on the other hand, musk (gla rtsi) and the gall of a bear (dom mkhris); [197] 5. Medicinal trees (shing sman). The following parts of medicinal trees are treated in special subgroups: fruit ('bras bu), flowers (me tog), leaves (lo ma), the trunk (sdong po), branches (yal ga), bark (pags pa), viscosy fluids (tshi ba; to this subgroup also belong the gums, thang chu), and roots (rtsa ba); 6. Stalked plants (ldum bu), of which primarily the following parts are used: roots, leaves, flowers and fruit. The effects of each of these parts are treated in a separate chapter; 7. Herbs (sngo); this sections is subdivided into five chapters describing the medicinal effects of the herb's roots, leaves, flowers, fruit, as well as those of the whole plant; 8. Salts (lan tshva); 9. Unguents (byung sman) prepared from various parts of the bodies of animals and to some extent also from those of men. This section of the book is divided into twenty-nine subchapters dealing with the medicinal qualities of horns (rva), eyes (mig), tongue (lce), theeth (so), throat (gre ba), heart (snying), lungs (glo ba), liver (mchin pa), gall (mkhris), spleen (mcher), kidneys (mkhal), stomach (pho ba), bowles (rgyu ma), genitals (mtshan ma), bones (rus pa), marrow (rkang mar, brain (klad pa), fat (tshil bu), blood (khrag), flesh (sha), skin (pags pa), hair (spu: this espression refers especially to the hair growing on the body: the chapter, however, also describes the medicianl qualities of skra, the hair growing on the head), feathers (sgro), nails (sen mo), the contents of the stomache (slo) and excrements (brun)—substances belonging to the latter two groups are used mainly for medicinal baths—, urine (dri chu), milk ('o ma) and the whole body (bub ril). The chapter on milk describes the general as well as the particular effects of milk itself and further the medicinal qualities of curd (zho) and the general and particular qualities of butter (mar). The last chapter explains for what medicinal purpose e.g. leaches (bad pa) and various ants, beetles, crabs and different kinds of eggs can be used; 10. Crops growing on fields (zhing skyes lo tog). This secition deals especially with the medicinal qualities of crops such as: millet (khre), various sorts of barley (nas), wheat (gro), buckwheat (bra bo), and it also describes the uses of domestic plants cultivated in gardens, e.g. various sorts of peas (sran ma), radishes (la phug), gourd (cung), etc. This chapter also mentions the medicinal qualities of the products of the above-mentioned plants, e.g. wheat-beer (gro chang), wheat flour (bag phye), etc.; [198] 11. Medicinal waters (sman chu). In this section are first discussed the general effects of rain-water (char chu), water from a glacier (gangs chu), from a river (chu klung chu), from a spring (chu mig gi chu), from a well (khron pa'i chu) and water from the ocean (rgya mtsho'i chu). The second subchapter enumerates the medicinal qualities of water containing mineral substances, especially arsenic and sulphur; 12. Medicinal effects of fire (me). This section contains two subchapters in which are described the medicinal qualities of a) the eleven substances used for cauterization, viz. gold, silver, copper, iron, a singed hide, cotton, wool, the tooth of a bull, the crystall called me shel, the shaft of an arrow, and stones. b) the beneficient effects of substances produced by fire, i.e. ordinary soot, lamp-soot and smoke; 13. Medicinal propensities of substances which a) have been singed or burned (for example the text mentions singed gold and silver-powder), but also ashes gained by burning a skull taken from a cemetery (dur thod thal ba) and ashes obtained by burning the eye of a peacock's feather (rma bya'i gdongs thal). b) decocta, especially various kinds of medicinal syrups (khan da).

Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René de. 1956a. Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. The Hague: Mouton: -

Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René. 1953e. "Neuerwerbungen aus Sikkim und Tibet." Archiv für Völkerkunde 8, 271: Die Neuerwerbungen der Tibet-Sammlung umfassen weiters zwanzig verschiedene tibetische Drucke und Manuskripte, bei denen es sich in der Mehrheit um seltene Werke handelt. Unter ihnen wären besonders zu erwähnen: [...] weiters sechs verschiedene medizinische Werke [...].

Inventory of the Weltmuseum Wien, Post XIII/1953: Drucke über deren Inhalt vom Sammler keine näheren Angaben gemacht wurden. Es handelt sich (mit Ausnahme von Nr. 470) um tibetische Bücher aus handgeschöpftem Papier, die im Blockdruckverfahren mit tibetischen Schriftzeichen bedruckt sind und religiöse Texte beinhalten; Maße: Nr. 475c; Schrift medizinischen Inhalts "Brud Nad Gzhol Pa'i Gnyen Po"; Blockdruck, 54x9 cm.

Shipping list, René Nebesky-Wojkowitz & Karl Anton Nowotny, 28 May 1954: Außerdem vorhanden: 12 Bündel Blockdrucke, 2 Bündel Manuskripte, 1 gebundenes Manuskript [...] 2 Bündel Blockdrucke, 1 Bündel Manuskripte waren nicht bei der Sammlung aufbewahrt und sind ebenso vorhanden.

Inventory list, René Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Kalimpong, 15 December 1951: -