Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Tibet and Bai: Medicine and Culture


Two types of medicine we learned about while we had our excursion was Tibet and Bai medicine. Bai medicine is similar to TCM because they also use herbal medicine found locally. People rely on these herbs because they are really cheap, as opposed to Western medicine.
Tibet medicine is also similar because they use herbal medicine, however, it is mostly in the form of a pill. A small pill could be composed of numerous herbs. About 90% of the medicines used in this hospital are Tibetan medicines and the other 10% are Western or TCM drugs. Tibetan medicine also uses acupuncture, cupping, and moxabustion. However, there is some variation from TCM such as with the number of acupuncture points. Also, their main diagnostic method is urinary analyses, something different from TCM. One interesting thing about Tibetan culture is that they have “sky funerals” and so they don’t bury or cremate the dead bodies. Instead the bodies are cut up and fed to vultures. It was this way that they were able to have advancement about the physiology, function, and surgical knowledge.

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