Lhajeh (Dr.) Phuntsog Wangmo

Lhajeh (Dr.) Phuntsog Wangmo received her advanced degree from the Lhasa University School of Traditional Medicine in 1988 where she also served a two-year residency after completing her five year training program (1983-1990). During that time she studied with the Khenpos Troru Tsenam and Gyaltsen, two of Tibet's foremost doctors who are credited with the revival of Tibetan Medicine within Tibet under the Chinese. Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo had the exceptional opportunity of extensive clinical training under Khenpo Troru Tsenam for four years. Thereafter, she dedicated many years of work as a doctor in Eastern Tibet where she collaborated and directed the implementation of A.S.I.A. the non-profit organization founded by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. Since that time, she has worked on behalf of A.S.I.A. setting up hospitals and training centers in the remote regions of Sichuan Province and Chamdo Perfecture. 

From 1996-present, she has been the A.S.I.A. project coordinator in Tibet for the development of Gamthog Hospital in collaboration with expatriate personnel as well as the overall health coordinator and practitioner of traditional Tibetan medicine supervising health activities throughout the surrounding region of Chamdo Perfecture. Prior to 1996, she was on the faculty of Shang Shung Institute in Italy where she gave numerous seminars and conference presentations on Tibetan medicine. Dr. Wangmo remains in residence at the Shang Shung Institute in America where she is the director of the Institute's Traditional Tibetan Medicine Program.

Dr. Tenzing Dakpa

Dr. Tenzing Dakpa was born March 15, 1963, in Shimla, H.P. India. He completed his early schooling at Central School for Tibetans in Shimla and spent one year in Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, Varanasi, India. He joined Men-Tsee-Khang, Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute of His Holiness the Dalai Lama College, in 1987 where he graduated first in his class in 1991. Thereafter, he served as the Resident Doctor of the Nizamuddin Branch Clinic in New Delhi, India in 1992 and in Pokhara, Nepal in 1993 and 1994.

Dr. Dakpa was then transferred to Men-Tsee-Khang Headquarters in Dharmasala. There he served as a Special Technical Assistant to the Director and was a member and Secretary to the High Level Tibetan Medical and Astrological Committee. In the same period, he also worked as a lecturer at the Tibetan Medical and Astrological College and was the Editor-in-Chief of the sMan-rTsis Jjournal. He has visited Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, France, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, and Japan for seminars, conferences, medical consultations, and lectures with late Dr. Tenzin Choedrak, the senior personal physician to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Dr. Dakpa attended the Third World Congress on Medical Acupuncture & Natural Medicine in Edmonton, Canada and the “Founding Celebration” of the International Peace University in Berlin, Germany in 1995. He has also attended the 16th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Annual International Symposium on Acupuncture and Electro-Therapeutics at Columbia University, New York City in 2000, 2005, 2006, and 2007: the 1st and 2nd International Congress on Tibetan Medicine in Washington, DC in 1998 and 2003, and the Longevity & Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives convened by the Columbia Integrative Medicine Program and Tibet House, US from September 18th and 21st, 2006.

He is co-author of the Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine published by Men-Tsee-Khang in India in 2001. He is also an author of Tibetan Medicine – Part One: History, Principles and Methodology and Part Two: Tibetan Materia Medica and its Application in Chronic Ailments in Principles of Integrated Medicine published by Tata Mcgraw-Hill Publishing co. Ltd., New Delhi, India and the Science of Healing: A Comprehensive Commentary on the Root Tantra and Diagnostic Techniques of Tibetan Medicine.

He was a Resident Tibetan Health Advisor at the Medicine Buddha Healing Center in Spring Green, WI, and the Research Scholar in Alternative Medicine and an Honorary Fellow of the Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, and the Tibetan Medicine Program Coordinator of Tibet Center, Chicago, IL.


Guest Lecturers & Past Affiliated Teachers

Dr. Yangdron Kalzang

Menba Yangdron Kelzang was born and educated in Lhasa, Tibet. She was first introduced to medicine through her uncle who was a senior physician in Men Zi Kang (a medicine and astrology institute) in Lhasa. Through his practice, as a student in elementary school, she had already been exposed to the herbal community. In addition, Menba. Kalzang successfully completed a five-year Tibetan medicine program in 1994 at the Traditional Tibetan Medical University in Lhasa, formerly called Men Zi Kang or Charri Richi Sori Doupan Louling. She studied English and took anatomy in Sichuan, China. Menba. Kelzang lived in San Francisco for three and a half years studying English at U.C. Berkeley. Moreover, she took Human Biology, Medical Chemistry, Conceptual Physics, Human Anatomy, Introductory Psychology, a course in women's health from a western perspective, and Western Medical Terminology at the City College of San Francisco for two years. Menba Kalzang is a graduate from the Five Branches Institute’s Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Santa Cruz, California. She is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist in California.

In addition, for the last year and a half she has been involved in a research project with Dr. Vincanne Adam for maternal health of Tibetan women at the University of California in San Francisco. Also, she has been teaching Introductory courses on Tibetan medicine and providing Tibetan medicine consultation at Five Branches Institute in Santa Cruz. She has given a number of lectures on Tibetan medicine in America. Apart from these, she acts as the interpreter for Shang Shung Institute's Foundation Course in Tibetan Medicine with Lhajeh (Dr.) Phuntsog Wangmo. Her goal is to broaden her education and combine her traditional medicine with her professional expertise to benefit all sentient beings.

Dr. Thubten Phuntsog

Dr. Thubten Phuntsog was personally selected by Choegyal Namkhai Norbu, the founder of Shang Shung Institute to present the Three Year Foundation Course in Tibetan Medicine. Dr. Phuntsog was born in 1955 in the area of Pelpung (Dege County) in East Tibet in a family linked to the second Kongtrul, Pelden Khyentze Ozer. From the age of six until he was twenty, he privately studied various subjects such as medicine, poetry, astrology, history, Buddhist logic, and philosophy with some of the masters affiliated with Pelpung Monastery. He studied medicine with Yonten Phuntsog, who was the personal physician to the second Kongtrul and Tibetan grammar and different systems of astrology and astronomy with Kyabshe Pende.

Currently, Dr. Phuntsog is Professor of Tibetan Studies at the central University of Nationalities where he teaches courses in literature, philosophy, medicine, poetry and astrology. He is also a Professor in the Tibetan medical department at the Institute of Tibetan Studies in Sichuan Province. He is the author of numerous scholarly publications including, the Grammar of Tibetan Language (Sichuan People’s Press, Chengdu, 1987); Calculations for the System of the Tibetan Lunar Calendar (Minzu Press, Bejing, 1991) a two volume, History of Tibet (Sichuan People’s Press) as well as numerous articles on Tibetan history, language, and medicine.

Professor Chimed Rabten

Professor Chimed Rabten was born in Derghe Palpung, Kham, Tibet on August 10, 1963.

He obtained his elementary education by attending the Palpung County Elementary School from 1968 - 1974. He dedicated his time mainly to learning Chinese and Tibetan.

From 1975 - 1980, he spent five years with his own uncle, who was one of the most illustrious and learned scholars of Tibet, Venerable Lama Lochoe. He received intensive and personalized training in Tibetan literature in general and science of healing in particular from his Uncle Lama Lochoe.

He attended the Sichuan State Tibetan College, China from October of 1981 - June of 1986. His course of study included Tibetan history, and literature, astrology, Buddhism etc. and more specifically the bi-lingual translations of Chinese and Tibetan. He continued receiving more advanced practical and theoretical training in Tibetan medicine, which he completed in July of 1986.

Some of the most important teachers with whom Chime Rabten studied with and who could be regarded as the endowment of Tibet were: Scholar Abbot uncle Lama Lochoe, Scholar Kunub Woser, Dasal Wangmo etc. Scholar Lama Lochoe was the Abbot of Palpung Monastery, the secretary and personal physician to His Eminence Pema Wangchog Gyalpo who was the head of Palpung monastery in Kham, Tibet. Palpung was a very well known Kagyudpa monastery in Tibet and one of the centers of higher learning in Kham, Tibet. He was the lineage holder of the profound healing science that originated from Jamgon Kongtrul, Yonten Gyatso, Khenchen Tashi Woser and Abbot Tsewang Rabten. Therefore, Abbot Lama Lochoe was one of the most learned Tibetan scholars that Tibet ever produced.

Scholar Kunub Woser was the abbot and physician of Kunub monastery in Kham Menyamk, Tibet. He was the fifth generation in a line of medical doctors or physicians. He is a great-learned person in general and a master of Tibetan healing science in particular. He completely mastered the practice of Tibetan medicine. He is now retired after serving as the head Tibetan teacher of the Sichuan State Tibetan College, China.

Master Dasal Wangmo is well known throughout Tibet. She was born to the Dotsang family of Kham Menyak, Tibet. She is the niece of Do-Rinpoche whose fame for Tibetan knowledge did spread throughout the country. She is the main lineage holder of the healing science tradition that the Dotsang family has been able to preserve for many generations. She is now retired after serving many years as the main Tibetan Teacher of the Sichuan State Tibetan College.

Upon the completion of his studies, he was appointed as one of the main Tibetan Teachers as well as the Tibetan physician for the same school from where he successfully graduated. He held different teaching positions for various elementary, intermediate and higher grades. Although he became a Tibetan teacher and a physician, he continued practicing and learning Tibetan medicine with his former teachers at the college.

From July of 1986 - August of 1988 he became a Tibetan teacher for the same college. He taught Tibetan literature in general and Tibetan medicine in particular.

In addition to his regular Tibetan teaching responsibilities, he assumed the responsibilities of directing the Tibetan Medical Center of the Sichuan State Tibetan College, China. He also served as the chief physician.

As a full-fledged Tibetan scholar and physician, he was invited to attended the first International conference on Tibetan Medicine that was held in Washington DC in November of 1998. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was the keynote speaker for the conference.

Several Awards and commendations were awarded for his literary works. He wrote several articles and published in many Tibetan news journals, periodicals etc. He was bestowed the highest award by the Kerzy State Creative Group, Kerzy, Tibet for his poetic article: The Tibetan Tradition published in the White Snow Mountain periodical.

Dr. Kelsang Wangyal

Dr. Kelsang Wangyal a Buddhist monk, studied Buddhism at the Jokhang monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. Later on, he was educated and graduated in the field of Tibetan healing and medicine from the prestigious Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute in Dharamsala, India. He was awarded an honorary degree of Menran-pa (T.M.D). Dr. Wangyal was personally trained by Dr. Tenzin Choedrak, senior physician to the Dalai Lama.