This beautifully designed, richly illustrated, scholarly, and compelling exhibition catalogue is a must-read for all those who want to get to know in detail and appreciate the art of Tibetan medicine, also known as Sowa Rigpa (Tib. gso ba rig pa) or the “knowledge of healing.” The first part of the catalogue illustrates in a vivid manner the complex theory, principles, and practices, as well as the ethnographic and geographic diversity, of this little-known living tradition of an Asian medicine, while the second part focuses on the historical relationships between medicine, religion, and art.

International experts working extensively on and with Tibetan medicine share their ethnographic, historical, and practical insights. Noteworthy are the otherwise little-studied historical connections between astrology, divination, and Tibetan medicine by historian Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, in part using original translations of the oldest available sources on medical practices from the Dunhuang manuscripts (seventh to tenth centuries). Tibetan scholar-physician and historian Yang Ga reveals the complex origins of the core classical compendium of Tibetan medicine, the Four Tantras or Gyüshi (Tib. rGyud bzhi) and the question of authorship by the “father of Tibetan medicine,” Yuthok Yonten Gonpo (twelfth century). Pasang Yontan Arya, Tibetan physician-scholar-cum-teacher, elaborates in detail on the rich variety of external therapies, many of which are not practiced anymore. They are illustrated by images taken from the Four Tantras, and complemented by photographs of surgical and other instruments used for cauterization, bloodletting, gold needle application, and formerly also operations. The chapters by Theresia Hofer and Sienna Craig offer some new anthropological perspectives by comparing different cultural and geographical settings of Tibetan medicines between Asia and the West as well as old and modern pharmacopoeias.

Also noteworthy is a complete set of seventy-nine skillfully reproduced medical paintings made in eastern Tibet, which the Rubin Museum purchased in 2013. The original set was commissioned by the regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653–1705), himself an author of authoritative medical texts and the founder of the first Tibetan medical school, the monastic college of Chakpori in Lhasa. Although Tibetan medical paintings have already been the object of an earlier, detailed, and also beautifully illustrated book on the same topic,Footnote ¹ the Rubin Museum's exhibition catalogue celebrates in a comprehensive, multifaceted, and artistic way the intricate relationship between ethnography and history in Tibetan medical practice and art.

Curator-cum-author and editor, social anthropologist Hofer, who has conducted extensive ethnographic research with physicians in Tibet, brings to the volume an excellent choice of experts on Tibetan medicine, and a good eye for combining text with rich visual materials. The result is an outstanding companion to what has probably been the most important exhibition to date on the art and practice of Tibetan medicine, staged at the Rubin Museum in New York in 2014. The exhibition catalogue presents elaborate and well-written scholarly information complemented by stunning visuals on the body and mind, diet, behavior and environment, religion, astrology and medicine, art, and diagnosis and treatment, depicting them as complementary aspects in Tibetan medicine. It illustrates the complexity of what we as humans are made of from a Tibetan perspective, why disease originates and develops, and how healing is done in both theory and practice, in the past and at present.