Origin and Development of Tibetan Medicine (part 4)

                                                         "The Content of the Four Tantras

The first Tantra is the Root Tantra.  It presents teachings about illness and relates all

the elements of these teachings to one another in logical sequence...The Root Tantra also describes the causes of illness and methods of diagnosis and treatment.

The second tantra is the Tantra of Enlightenment.  This contains teachings about the body, diagnosis, treatment and medical ethics.  There are descriptions of conception and pregnancy, the development of the foetus, of anatomy, physiology, a further classification of illnesses, several chapters on nutrition, the absorption of food, and medicines.

In the Third Tantra, The Tantra of Oral Tradition, also called the Tantra of Instructions, all

illnesses and their treatments are listed individually, highlighting diagnosis, symptoms and treatment instructions.  Sixteen chapters of this longest volume of the four are devoted to the different kinds of fever, while 19 others deal with a variety of illnesses...Further chapters are devoted to specialist fields such as gynaecology and paediatrics, while still dealing with poisining, wounds or fertility treatment.  This Tantra of Oral Tradition has not yet been translated.

The fourth Tantra, also called the concluding tantra, of Latter Tantra, contains methods of diagnosis, preparation of medicines, methods of treatment and above all secret remedy preparations.  This tantra has not yet been translated either."