The murals in the medical college of Labrang Monastery

In the inner courtyard of the medical college (sman pa grwa tshang) at Labrang Monastery (Bla brang Bkra shis `khyil) the visitor finds nineteen murals, none of which have been previously analysed and described. They illustrate the contents of the rtsa rgyud and the bshad rgyud, the first and the second parts of the Rgyud bzhi. The murals depict each chapter in the form of an `unfolded tree` (sdong-`grems) metaphor which provides a vivid visual structure to the contents of the books. On field trips in 2004 and 2005 the murals were photo-documented and transliterated on-site, however in the interim the murals appear to have been repainted. They seem to have been altered and are now similar but not identical, have been placed in a different sequence and are less elaborate. Labrang medical college was established in 1784 and was modelled on the medical college in Lhasa, called lcags po ri. Some of the Labrang murals depict the contents of the Rgyud bzhi in exacting detail, whereas others are less accurate and in some cases the illustrations show divergences. A preliminary comparison of the Labrang murals with the illustrations in the famous commentary on the Rgyud bzhi by SANGS RGYAS RGYA MTSHO, the Vaidurya sngon po (Blue Beryl), reveals a whole string of significant and often complementary differences not least in terms of their medico-cultural histories. The thangkas of the Blue Beryl were painted by order of SANGS RGYAS RGYA MTSHO the famous regent who had aimed to show recent medical achievements to the public through the images. The murals in the courtyard of the medical college at Labrang Monastery were designed by a professional physician as a mnemotechnical tool for medical students. The divergences of the murals at Labrang from illustrations in the Blue Beryl and the Rgyud bzhi raise questions about the textual traditions that influenced the murals at Labrang. It could be that these divergences are simply regional characteristics, however a cursory analysis of the Vaidurya sngon po (Blue Beryl), and the classical text bshad rgyud kyi sdong `grems legs bshad gser gyi thur ma by BLO BZANG CHOS GRAGS (2003) indicates that the elaborate murals at Labrang may reflect the attachment of the monastery to the medical doctrines of the lcag po ri -tradition in Lhasa in the 17th and 18th century. In this project the documented murals and their new facsimile will be compared with the illustrations of the Vaidurya sngon po, the corresponding parts of the rgyud bzhi and the text by BLO BZANG CHOS GRAGS (2003). The results will give new insights into the didactic value of historical medical paintings and the establishment of the medical college at Labrang Monastery.

In this project eighteen murals in the inner courtyard of the Medical College at Labrang Monastery on the north-eastern fringe of the Tibetan plateau (modern Chinese Gansu province) have been documented and their significance within Tibetan Medicine has been analysed. The murals illustrate the contents of the first and second part of the Four Tantras, the most famous treatise in Tibetan Medicine, in form of unfolded trees (in this context the term Tantra means treatise). These elaborately crafted tree-metaphors are used for instruction, learning as well as examination. The murals do not depict the contents of the classical text exactly: some of the trees illustrate the contents in a cursory way while others go far beyond their textual template. This is especially so in the case of the chapters on anatomy, pathology, certain aspects of pharmacology, therapeutic skills and the personality of the physician.The murals have been compared with another didactic medium of Tibetan Medicine: a compilation of more than seventy thangkas, rolled paintings which can be hung on the wall, originating from the end of the seventeenth century and illustrating the contents of the Four Tantras, which are well-known among experts in the field. The depicted content in the thangkas also does not correlate to the standard text. In this project the content of both media have been compared in detail. It became evident that when an aspect was not depicted in the thangkas it would often be emblematised through the murals, and vice versa. If both didactic media are read together the content of the first two parts of the Four Tantras is represented almost completely.At the beginning of the research the question of whether the murals at Labrang Monastery would eventually be deemed as a regional characteristic of Tibetan Medicine or if they would follow another, yet unknown text tradition arose. After extensive investigation a text dealing with unfolded trees could be identified as the template of the murals: its author is Blo bzang Chos grags was a personal physician of the Fifth Dalai Lama who lived in the seventeenth century. In his older years he became a medical instructor at the Medical College at Iron Hill (Chakpori) founded and located just opposite the Potala, the Winter Palace of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa.Aside from the analysis of the murals content, an aim of the project was to delineate the historical framing. The time of the formation of the treatise on unfolded trees was examined, as well as the development of the Medical College at Labrang. After a research trip to Labrang it was found that prior murals had been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). In the course of the period of revitalisation in the mid-1980s they had been restored under the guidance of experienced physicians. During a major refurbishment of the inner courtyard of the Medical College in 2007 the murals were repainted again, though sadly not in the elaborated way they had previously been painted but still following the same textual tradition. A portrayal of the most important protagonists in maintenance of this unique medical teaching tradition completes the historical part of the project.