Shambhala Sun - The Book Of Tibetan Medicine Review

The following is the review which appeared in Shambhala Sun March 2009 for The Book of Tibetan Medicine.

The Book of Tibetan Medicine: How to Use Tibetan Healing for Personal Wellbeing
By Ralph Quinlan Forde
Gaia, 2008; 176 pp., $19.95 (paper)

This book on Tibetan medicine, a thousand-year-old system that draws on theory and technique from ancient India, China, Persia, and Greece, is as informative as it is attractive. Author Ralph Quinlan Forde walks us through Tibetan medicine’s development, principles, and methods in pithy chapters that are accompanied by eye-catching photos and a pleasing design. But Forde’s treatment is not superficial. He takes pains to explain Tibetan medicine’s cultural and spiritual context, which is dramatically different from the milieu in which Western medicine is practiced. A holistic, integrated system, Tibetan medicine looks for the root causes of health and sickness in cosmology (such as seasonal changes), human factors (such as diet and behavior), and the effect of spiritual dynamics (such as karma). While many of its therapeutic techniques are commonplace these days (dietary changes, herbal remedies, massage, etc.), without knowledge of the back story, some cures will strike you as peculiar (cupping, pills made of valuable metals, special prayers). Still, Forde may have the power to make a believer out of you.

Tibetan Medicine is an ancient medical system that has been successfully practiced for over 1,000 years. A holistic approach combining dietary and behavioral changes, herbal cures, massage and meditation, this unique approach to healing utilizes the ancient wisdom of Tibetan masters. Tibetan Medicines are available at www.stargatenutritionvitamin.com