Schools and Training

Training and education have always been a central interest throughout history of Tibetan Medicine and Buddhism and are influenced by the Buddhist tradition. They were first mainly given by elders or scholar physicians who freely trained young people on the Buddhist basis of ethic and moral responsibility to save one’s own and others’ life. Therefore physicians have gained respect in the Tibetan society.

The first official training systems were established from the 7th century AD to the 9th century, during the height of the Tibetan kings and their reign. However, until the 17th century, education practiced among the schools in monasteries and family traditions were probably not similar.
During the 5th Dalai Lama’s reign, his regent Desid Sangye Gyatsho (1653-1705) built the Chakpori Medical College, and made a curriculum for medical training and certification system officially recognized. Even if, according to time and requisites, changes in curricula have been made, the present Tibetan medicine trainings in Tibet and India are still made on this basis. For instance, the training tradition of the ‘medicine trees‘ and oral systems are still used.