On the History of Creation of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine (17th century): source aspects

Introduction. The article examines the history of the creation of the set of illustrations the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine (also known as Tibetan Medical Paintings) by Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653–1705) to his Vaiḍūrya sngon po, which is a drudrel (‘bru ‘grel) commentary on the rGyud bzhi. The question of the set’s creation has not been sufficiently studied in Russian oriental studies. In Tibetan medical historiography, the Vaiḍūrya sngon po in combination with the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine is considered to be the most authoritative commentary on the rGyud bzhi. The purpose of the article is to identify the main stages of the creating of the visual material of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine and to give a general description of the illustrations. Materials and methods. The work is based on the study of the text and set of illustrations of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine and information contained in Tibetan medical treatises, historical works, as well as specialized literature. Results. It was revealed that the process of creating the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine stretched over several years. Desi Sangye Gyatso began illustrating the Vaiḍūrya sngon po in 1687 and completed it in 1702. Desi Sangye Gyatso uses the word tricha (bris cha) or ngönme-tricha (sngon med kyi bris cha ‘an illustration that did not exist in the past’) to denote an “illustration.” The main source for the compilation of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine was pictorial material, consisting of two groups: traditional medical illustrations and new, specially created paintings. The first group includes illustrations borrowed from previously existing texts of the genres of dondem (sdong ‘grems ‘unfolded tree’), rodra (ro bkra, yul thig ‘anatomy’), and dungpe (‘khrungs dpe ‘Materia medica’). The second group consists of new composition of Buddhist and religious-mythological content, as well as numerous images of people in everyday life, created specifically for the illustrating the Vaiḍūrya sngon po. The creation of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine led to the unification of the disparate paintings accumulated by the 17th century in various medical schools of Tibet. The pictorial material and thematic range of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine are not limited to medical sphere; its artistic and aesthetic aspects require further study.

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