By Teresa Lamb
As many of you may know we were very fortunate to have Dr. Paltul Rinpoche come visit us January 21st and 22nd of this year. Dr. Paltul is a Barom Kagyu lineage holder and respected doctor of Tibetan medicine.
(left to right: Lama Migmar, Khenpo Jampa Tenphel, Dr. Paltul Rinpoche, Tulku Yeshi Gyatso)
Sakya Monastery members scheduled 15 minute consultations with Dr. Paltul during which time he used the Tibetan medicine technique of palpation (listening to the pulse) to diagnose health problems. Tibetan medicine pills (blessing pills) were then dispensed to treat ailments.
At Dr. Paltul’s very informative teaching on Tibetan Medicine he explained to us how much detail goes into the preparation of these Tibetan medicine pills. The methods for making them have been passed down for hundreds of years and extensive prayers and rituals must accompany the collecting, drying and preparing of these herbs.
He also spoke about the differences between Tibetan and western medicine. For example, with Tibetan medicine faith is a key part of the treatment, knowing that this medicine is acting not only on a physical level but on spiritual and energetic level as well. Also, Tibetan medicine typically takes longer to work but is a more complete remedy, curing the illness from the root not only the symptoms.
Dr. Paltul kept a very busy schedule seeing people after his evening talk and all day the next day bringing great benefit to all of us here at Sakya Monastery. The proceeds from these consultations went toward Tibetan health care development projects, thereby bringing benefit to people in Tibet as well.
We look forward to another visit from Dr. Paltul, hopefully next year.