About the author Dr. Tenzin Choedrak was born in 1924 at Ringpung Dzong, Shigatse, Tibet, and is one of the most eminent masters of the Tibetan medical tradition. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959 he was imprisoned by the Communist Chinese for nearly 22 years. In 1998 Dr. Choedrak visited France, Canada and the United States for medical consultations and lectures.
Tibetan medicine is a science, art and philosophy that provides a holistic approach to health care.
It is a science because its principles are enumerated in a systematic and logical framework based on an understanding of the body and its relationship to the environment. It is an art because it uses diagnostic techniques based on the creativity, insight, subtlety and compassion of the medical practitioner. And it is a philosophy because it embraces the key Buddhist principles of altruism, karma and ethics. Buddhist philosophy states that everything in the universe is in a constant state of flux - that all phenomenons are characterized by impermanence, and that the only permanent feature is impermanence itself. It is this impermanence that causes each and every being to suffer at one stage or another.