Simioli, Carmen (Author)
This article focuses on the analysis of two Tibetan treatises on iatrochemistry, The Treatise on the Mercurial Elixir (Dngul chu grub pa'i bstan bcos) and the Compendium on the Transmutation into Gold (Gser 'gyur bstan bcos bsdus pa). These texts belong to the rasasastra genre that were translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by Orgyenpa Rinchenpel (O rgyan pa Rin chen dpal, 1229/30--1309) and integrated into the Tibetan Buddhist Canon of the Tengyur (Bstan 'gyur). The treatises deal with the processing of mercury, which is indispensable to convert metals into gold (gser 'gyur) and to accomplish the `mercurial elixir' (dngul chu'i bcud len). The texts start with the description of a `pink-coloured' (dmar skya mdog) compound, which is described as the amalgam of `moonlight-exposed tin' (gsha' tshe zla ba phyogs), gold, and copper. According to the texts, mercury has to be `amalgamated' (sbyor ba) with `minerals that devour its poisons' (za byed khams) and with `eight metals that bind it' ('ching khams brgyad); at the same time, mercury is cooked with `red substances' (dmar sde tshan) and other herbal extracts, types of urine and salts, and reduced to ashes. Starting with an outline of the earliest Tibetan medical sources on mercury, I analyse the two treatises with regard to their entire materia alchemica and the respective purification methods aimed at `obtaining essences' (snying stobs), which are then to be absorbed by mercury. I argue that the two thirteenth-century treatises were particularly significant in the process of consolidating pharmaceutical practices based on mercury and the merging of alchemical and medical knowledge in Tibet.
...MoreArticle Wujastyk, Dagmar (2013) Perfect Medicine: Mercury in Sanskrit Medical Literature. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 15-40).
Article
Wujastyk, Dagmar;
(2013)
Perfect Medicine: Mercury in Sanskrit Medical Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001510474/)
Article
Gerke, Barbara;
(2013)
The Social Life of Tsotel: Processing Mercury in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510478/)
Article
Czaja, Olaf;
(2013)
On the History of Refining Mercury in Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510476/)
Article
Garrett, Frances;
(2010)
Tapping the Body's Nectar: Gastronomy and Incorporation in Tibetan Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001030693/)
Article
Anna Sehnalova;
(2017)
Tibetan Bonpo Mendrup: The Precious Formula’s Transmission
(/isis/citation/CBB502904878/)
Article
Newman, William R.;
(2014)
Mercury and Sulphur among the High Medieval Alchemists: From Rāzī and Avicenna to Albertus Magnus and Pseudo-Roger Bacon
(/isis/citation/CBB001421649/)
Article
Barbara Gerke;
(2015)
The Poison of Touch: Tracing Mercurial Treatments of Venereal Diseases in Tibet
(/isis/citation/CBB790732139/)
Article
Dolma, Sonam;
(2013)
Understanding Ideas of Toxicity in Tibetan Medical Processing of Mercury
(/isis/citation/CBB001510477/)
Article
Schwabl, Herbert;
(2013)
The Mercury Puzzle: Tibetan Medicines and the Pharmaceutical Regulations in the European Union--Assessments and Opportunities
(/isis/citation/CBB001510480/)
Article
Salguero, C. Pierce;
(2010)
Mixing Metaphors: Translating the Indian Medical Doctrine Tridoa in Chinese Buddhist Sources
(/isis/citation/CBB001450709/)
Chapter
Schaeffer, Kurtis R.;
(2011)
New Scholarship in Tibet, 1650--1700
(/isis/citation/CBB001251380/)
Book
Gyatso, Janet;
(2015)
Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet
(/isis/citation/CBB001551090/)
Thesis
Loizzo, Joseph John;
(2001)
Candrakirti and the moon-flower of Nalanda: Objectivity and self-correction in India's central therapeutic philosophy of language
(/isis/citation/CBB001562617/)
Book
Pollock, Sheldon I.;
(2011)
Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500--1800
(/isis/citation/CBB001251294/)
Book
Akasoy, Anna;
(2011)
Islam and Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes
(/isis/citation/CBB001450738/)
Thesis
Sokhyo Jo;
(2016)
Topics on the History of Tibetan Astronomy with a Focus on Background Knowledge of Eclipse Calculations in the 18th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB041789676/)
Article
Baker, Ian A.;
(2012)
Embodying Enlightenment: Physical Culture in Dzogchen as revealed in Tibet's Lukhang Murals
(/isis/citation/CBB001450732/)
Article
Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit;
(2010)
Tibetan “Wind” and “Wind” Illnesses: Towards a Multicultural Approach to Health and Illness
(/isis/citation/CBB001023969/)
Article
Cuomu, Mingji;
(2011)
Sexual Differentiation in Tibetan Medical and Buddhist Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB001450724/)
Book
Sienna R. Craig;
(2012)
Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB385245192/)
Be the first to comment!