The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine Goals and Objectives

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Project Goals

The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine aims to fulfill the following goals:

1. To register Tibetan medical colleges, pharmaceutical units of Tibetan medicine and traditional Tibetan physicians in Exile. Most of the traditional Tibetan physicians are settled in India, Nepal, Bhutan, U.S.A, Europe, Russia and Mongolia. They are successful in their practice and there are many anecdotes of their success in treating many chronic and terminal. However, none of the traditional Tibetan physicians have been registered under any licensing authority until now. Our colleges and pharmaceutical units are also not registered, despite their high level of proficiency. Therefore, the Central Concil of Tibetan Medicine aims to register all medical colleges, pharmaceutical units and traditional Tibetan physicians over time through its registrar appointed by the Central Concil of Tibetan Medicine.

2. To compose guidelines for the preparation of Tibetan medicine. In the recent past, health authorities worldwide paid considerable attention to the use of herbal medicines due to their increasing popularity as an alternative to allopathic treatment. At the same time, herbal medicine has been found to be a potential source of new drugs for economic development.

3. The Tibetan medical system is one of the richest sources of knowledge on medicinal plants and other products. It is a medical system that has made a great contribution to the health and well being of Tibetan people for more than two thousand years. Tibetan people still have a great faith in its healing properties and mainly rely on it to meet their health needs. The interest in Tibetan herbal medicine is also growing worldwide and this growing interest in its usage has thus created the need for greater precision in preparation and evaluation of Tibetan medicine as a whole. The Central Concil of Tibetan Medicine therefore aims to prepare guidelines for the preparation of Tibetan herbal medicine. It will make attempts to incorporate traditional and basic scientific principles as well as other special requirements related to the use of Tibetan herbal and other medicinal ingredients and their products.

4. To prepare guidelines of academic standards for Tibetan medical colleges/university and to provide due recognition to them: Tibetan medical colleges in India each have a different syllabus for the training of Tibetan physicians and there is no central authority that controls the qualification of traditional Tibetan physicians until now. Therefore, it has become important to have a equal academic standard in all Tibetan medical colleges and universities and give due recognition to those colleges and universities who fulfill the requirements laid down in the guidelines. This will improve and act as a control of the qualification of traditional Tibetan physicians.

Project Objectives

The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine will accomplish the following objectives in its initial stage:

1. Registration of all traditional Tibetan physicians, according to the Exile Tibetan Sorig Doctors' Act. None of the traditional Tibetan physicians in Exile have been registered until now. The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine will prepare registration forms and will distribute these forms to all traditional Tibetan physicians in due course of time. Physicians who fulfill the criteria laid out in the Act and the rules and regulations set out by the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine will then be registered.

2. Temporary registration of all Tibetan medical colleges and universities in Exile. Medical colleges will be registered for three years on a temporary basis as per the guidelines prepared by the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine.

3. 2nd Sorig Conference of all traditional Tibetan physicians in January 2007. The term of the present members will end in January 2007 and new members will be elected at that time. The aim of this conference is to discuss the administration of the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine and other important topics related with Tibetan medicine. The first Conference saw the participation of 100 physicians and we are expecting the participation of more than 300 traditional Tibetan physicians during the conference in 2007. This will help traditional Tibetan physicians to know each other better and opens a platform to exchange their views and opinions for the development of Tibetan medicine. Moreover, it will provide good opportunities to the doctors to elect the best and the most competent members to the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine from their respective group.

4. Invitation of medical, legal and other experts to Dharamsala The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine will conduct careful and thorough studies of all aspects to legalize medical colleges, pharmaceutical units and individual traditional Tibetan physicians who are registered under the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine. The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine would need to invite medical, legal and other experts to assist in this matter. The main purpose will be to obtain their expert opinion regarding ways to obtain formal recognition of the Tibetan medical system by the Government of India.

5. To work together with the other traditional Tibetan physicians in the Himalayan Kingdom and help them in their development projects on Tibetan medicine. Traditional Tibetan medicine is also the indigenous medical system of the people in the Himalayan Kingdom who share common language and culture with the Tibetan people. There are a few hundred traditional Tibetan physicians in these regions. However, most of these physicians are not proficient in Tibetan language and have not received any formal training in Tibetan medicine, their knowledge has been passed down through their family traditions. The Central Council of Tibetan Medicine wants to play a lead role and guide and work closely with them in their development projects on Tibetan medicine.

6. To provide refresher training and workshops on Tibetan medicine to traditional Tibetan physicians. Traditional Tibetan medicine has different forms of highly effective treatment. Medicinal bath, therapeutic massage, purgatives, emetics, suppositories, blood letting therapy, heat therapies, nasal therapy, fomentation, etc., are some of the popular Tibetan methods of treatment which are seldom used these days by the traditional Tibetan physicians. Identification and usage of Tibetan medicinal plants also varies among different lineages of Tibetan medicine. There are also many important methods of treatment and preparation of medicine that traditional Tibetan physicians must learn and refine. Therefore, the Central Council of Tibetan Medicine feels the need to organize such important training and workshops for traditional Tibetan physicians and it will draw on the help of Men-Tsee-Khang and other Institutes to organize these events. Such an opportunity will open a platform to share clinical and other experiences among the participants of workshops and training sessions.