User:Bolod sharav

BRIEF HISTORY OF TRADITIONAL MONGOLIAN MEDICINE

Sh.Bold Academician, TMD, Ph.D., DSc (Med)

Scientific research method is not a ready-to-use recipe but a theoretical guideline to reveal content and essence of the research object. Likewise, for the science of medical history, research methods of analysis and synthesis have given more and more significance to understand characteristics of historical events and the natural law governing them. However it was deemed it was not long time ago in 2002 when we published our book History and Fundamentals of Traditional Mongolian Medicine, since then, 7 years passed. These 7 years have been long enough for me to deepen my research on the history of Mongolian medical development and to delight myself with discoveries of a number of new facts. Mongols, our ancestors, who inhabited on the heart of the Central Asian territory in a combination of Khangai, Gobi, and steppe under the harsh dry climate, created, developed and left priceless legacies to the next generations about the art of treatment and the medicine. Most recent researches by our historians and archeologists showed that the territory of Mongolia has been a home to humankind since 800000 years ago. A renowned Mongolian historian G. Sukhbaatar has discovered that ancient states of Mongol nomads had existed prior to Hunnu Empire which was regarded as the first nomads established the state 2000 years ago in Asia. The ancient states include Khiyan, 5000–2000 B.C.E, Bidgud established in 1562 B.C.E. The discovery of existence of such states extended the scope of our research targets and definitely will enrich the history of medical development on the territory of the Mongols. While studying the history of ancient Mongolian medicine, I realized that the 3 principle textbooks “Secret History of Mongol”, “Complete Collection of Histories” (Sudryn Chuulgan),”History of Yuan Dynasty” are needed to be thoroughly explored and medical facts from those books should be documented by illustrations of the related historical findings for the sake of our children. In addition to above books, ancient Chinese resources should not be underestimated to build up an historical tree of Traditional Mongolian Medicine. For instance: The Records of the Grand Historian, 史記 or Shiji. The 130 volumes of the text classify information into several categories: 12 volumes of Benji (本紀), 10 volumes of Biao (表), 8 volumes of Shu (書), 30 volumes of Shijia (世家), 70 volumes of Liezhuan (列傳). The Book of Han, 汉书 or Hànshū, The Book of the Later Han, 後漢書 or Hou Hanshu, The Book of Jin or 晉書, The Book of Song, 宋書 or Songshū, The Book of Wei, 魏書/魏书 or Weishū, The Book of Northern Qi, 北齊書 or Bei Qishū, The Book of Tang, 唐書 or Tangshū can be named as useful resources. Dedicated analytical approach is necessary to explore these text resources and other materials. We, the Mongols materialized the will of our ancestors including Chinggis Khaan to establish the independent country in the Central Asian plateau and aiming to build democracy and civil society, should refine the unquestionable truth through authentic historical facts from the mixture of actualities and illusions. New facts, new materials to enrich history of medical development have continuously been found. More materials are being written and more focus is being paid on the history of medical development covering the period before Indian Ayurvedic medicine which was introduced to Mongolia with the third revival of Buddhism from Tibet. Until the13th century Mongols used Dhom (The Unique Traditional Medical Knowledge of Mongolian ancestors and Mongolians) treatment extensively. Then from the 14th century to the 16th Mongolian medicine was developed bringing elements of Arabic and Chinese treatments and it was beyond the influence of any religion. At the end of the 16th century Buddhism emerged in Mongolia and the Tibetan medicine which was originated from Indian Ayurvedic medicine, was adopted. The change in the medicine was initiated as a result of fights among Mongol nobles for the throne, Manchurian intrusion and religious influence. In such circumstances Mongols adopted Tibetan medical school. After that, Mongols gradually gained much success to plant the Tibetan medicine in the Mongolian soil through renewal of the Tibetan medical theory, substitution of some medical herbs with ones grown in Mongolia, supplementing some treatments with magic treatment elements. These efforts were strengthened by the intellectual scope and capability of Mongols and became the basis to establish a new paradigm of the Mongolian medicine with a blend of Tibetan medicine. Another stimulus to establish the new paradigm was the whole set of differences of Mongols including physiological features, their food consumption, harsh changeable climate, lifestyle, and mindset etc. They faced the necessity to establish theory and practice to heal the diseases occurred due to above mentioned circumstances. For example, Tibetan medicine lacked certain understanding about different types of massage therapy such as gentle rubbing, pressure giving and assembling etc that were useful to heal fractures, injuries and collision which were common occurrences in daily lives of Mongols. Such deficits were, as shown by some historical facts, completed by Mongol doctors and scholars. As a result, Mongols managed to establish the complete Mongolian medical system based on their original magic treatment with adoption of the Indian Ayurveda, absorption of Chinese acupuncture and theory and methodology of the Tibetan medicine. We hope that you, the dear readers, will see how Mongols established such distinguishing system, from our book. A few years ago, when we wrote the book History of Medical Development in the 20th Century in Mongolia (editor P. Nymadawa, L. Lkhagva, B. Burmaa, 2001) covered about 100 years. Then, our next book the History and Fundamentals of Traditional Mongolian Medicine (Sh.Bold, M.Ambaga, 2002) covered 2500 years of history of Traditional Mongolian Medicine. This time, we present you the opportunity to read about the history of medicine of 5000 years in our new release The History and Development of Traditional Mongolian Medicine. I write history of the medicine because my predecessors ordered me to do it, not just because I am interested in. I believe that only the knowledge of medical history can tell you what the fundamentals of healthy life and opportunity to improve the life quality for Mongols are. Therefore, The History and Development of Traditional Mongolian Medicine is not only for professionals or medical people but also for everyone who wants to have a healthy life and to extend their life time. On the other hand, history must generate us pride, must be the scale to weigh failures and successes and it must be the realization. The history of Mongolian medicine is a unique wealth which opened up numerous things. We have understood and been writing that today, the 21st century, the development of modern western medicine is far beyond the development of the oriental medicine in our country. However rapid technological progress speeds up development, it changes lifestyles of human beings, weakens their adaptability to the nature and hurts human quality as it replaces human internal resources with unnatural ingredients. Unlike it, the basic methods of traditional medicine keep human and nature in touch and create a mindset to respect the nature. The history of Mongolian medical development is a history of a human who searches for an answer to the question of how to live healthily rather than how to treat diseases. Therefore, I would note that it is extremely important for us to choose a shortcut way to eliminate the gap between the Western and Traditional medicines and not just follow behind the Western Medicine. Finally, my apology goes in advance for possible mistakes and things forgotten in my efforts to evaluate and bring the systematic, complete understanding of the history of Mongolian medicine.

March 22, 2008

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