"7th International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine" to be held in Thimbu, Bhutan on 7-11 September 2009 (360G-Wellcome-090282_Z_09_Z)

This panel in the Seventh International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (http://www.iastam.org/conferences.htm) will consider medicine and healing in the pre-Buddhist tradition of Tibet, known as Bon. The main medical text of this tradition is known as the Bumzhi (the four hundred thousand healing arts), which according to Bon history dates back more than 1 000 years to the Central Asian kingdom of Zhang Zhung. In the 1930s the Bon lama and scholar Khyungtrul Jigmai Namkai Dorje (1897-1955) wrote a comprehensive four-volume commentary on the 'Bum bzhi, the Khyung sprul sman dpe, which is based on both Buddhist and Bonpo sources. In recent years there has been a resurgence of the Bon medical tradition which is currently been taught in a number of medical schools in Tibet and Nepal using both the 'Bum bzhi and the Khyung sprul sman dpe. The panel consists of 11 participants all presenting on different aspect of this ancient medical tradition. Several of the papers will focus specifically on Khyungtrul's medical work.