Tibetan Acupuncture

[Fa Dao]

I dont remember where I read it but I remember reading that at one time Tibet had as a part of its treatment therapies its own system of acupuncture. But for some reason it was banned or something. I am a Doctor of Chinese medicine primarily focusing on acupuncture and would love to know about its Tibetan counterpart.

[Malcolm]

I dont remember where I read it but I remember reading that at one time Tibet had as a part of its treatment therapies its own system of acupuncture. But for some reason it was banned or something. I am a Doctor of Chinese medicine primarily focusing on acupuncture and would love to know about its Tibetan counterpart.

We use needle on moxa as well as bloodletting points. But we generally only use needle on heat and nerve diseases, unlike Chinese medicine where they use it on everything.

[Fa Dao]

thanks Namdrol...was there a time when it was used for more than that?

[Malcolm]

thanks Namdrol...was there a time when it was used for more than that?

Never. It has to do with the theory of needle in Tibetan medicine -- i.e. it is used mainly for inflammation and heat diseases i.e. pitta and blood. It is considered a cold and rough therapy, not good for vata and kapha at all. So I always especially recommend that vata-deranged people generally avoid acupuncture unless there is serious reason for them to use it to cut the end of a heat disease.

Tibet is a cold place, China is a hot place. There are more heat diseases in China than Tibet. Our Moxa is much more developed than Chinese moxabustion. Why? Tibet is a cold country.

N

[Fa Dao]

Namdrol, I have to respectfully disagree...China is not only a "hot" place. In fact the weather there is quite varied. Ranging from below freezing to dry and arid to tropical. As to whether or not Tibetan moxabustion is superior to Chinese moxabustion, unless you are a practitioner of both Tibetan and Chinese medicine you cant really claim that either.

[Malcolm]

Namdrol, I have to respectfully disagree...China is not only a "hot" place. In fact the weather there is quite varied. Ranging from below freezing to dry and arid to tropical. As to whether or not Tibetan moxabustion is superior to Chinese moxabustion, unless you are a practitioner of both Tibetan and Chinese medicine you cant really claim that either.

I have dicussed the way Chinese moxa is practiced with several OMDs and I have clinical experience in Tibetan hospitals with doctors who are fully cross trained in both systems. Tibetan moxabustion is more developed than Chinese Moxa. Acupuncture is more developed in Chinese medicine. This is just a fact, nothing to really argue about.

In general, compared to Tibet, the Chinese climate is quite warm.

[Fa Dao]

While it is obviously true that Tibet is colder on the whole, there are places in China that are bitterly cold as well. As to the moxabustion unless you were discussing this with some older precommunist practitioners your information about Chinese moxabustion will be limited. Sadly nowadays in China as elsewhere moxabustion is only used for cold and deficiency disorders. It used to be used for both hot and cold disorders as well as deficiency and excess disorders. Not a lot that are doing that nowadays. This is due to a number of factors, one of which was not its lack of efficacy. Both moxabustion and acupuncture came close to becoming lost arts in China.

[Malcolm]

While it is obviously true that Tibet is colder on the whole, there are places in China that are bitterly cold as well. As to the moxabustion unless you were discussing this with some older precommunist practitioners your information about Chinese moxabustion will be limited. Sadly nowadays in China as elsewhere moxabustion is only used for cold and deficiency disorders. It used to be used for both hot and cold disorders as well as deficiency and excess disorders. Not a lot that are doing that nowadays. This is due to a number of factors, one of which was not its lack of efficacy. Both moxabustion and acupuncture came close to becoming lost arts in China.

Moxa is used in number of ways in TM -- as a therapy in and of itself, it is mostly used for cold/kapha diseases -- it is also used to dispell the vata which comes at the end of an serious heat diseases, and so on.

It is generally contraindicated as a main treatment for virtually all heat diseases, the only exception is heat being driven by vata.

N