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The hospital lies a block west of Jokhang
Temple, north of Yathok Lu. It was founded in 1980 as the largest Tibetan
traditional hospital in Tibet, covering a building space about 30,000
square meters and having about 150 beds. Visitors will see Tibetan doctors
treat patients in traditional ways by acupuncture, bloodletting and moxibustion.
Its library collects massive medical sutras and medical thangkas. Those
delicate, finely detailed drawings were painted hundreds of years ago,
for the purpose of medical teaching. A thangka shows relatively developed
surgery and surgical appliances while another depicts incredibly accurate
understanding of human conception and embryology. Tibetan medical theory
about embryology is almost a thousand years earlier than Darwin's evolutionism.
The hospital is also famous for its astrology and astronomy.
Tibetan traditional medicine has a long history,
more than 2,300 years. It has connections with Chinese, Indian, Nepalese
and Kashmir medical traditions. Although there is still suspicion about
its theory, Tibetan traditional medicine has been proved medicable. The
mysterious medical tradition has aroused interests of many medical institutes
home and abroad.
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