Program Overview

Four-year Tibetan Medicine Program

The Shang Shung Institute of America’s fouryear program in traditional Tibetan medicine offers unique curricular components in an innovative curriculum that is the first-of-its-kind in English and the only full-time, four-year traditional Tibetan medicine program offered in the United States. Closely paralleling training currently offered at contemporary colleges of Tibetan medicine, graduates will be among the first American-trained practitioners who will help put the institute on its path toward becoming an accredited school of Tibetan medicine in the West. The Shang Shung Institute of America’s primary mission is the preservation of all aspects of Tibetan culture including Tibetan medicine through educational programs, translation projects, and in fostering a general awareness of the culture’s contribution to human society.

Program Overview

Under the direction of Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, a physician with an advanced degree from Lhasa University in Traditional Tibetan Medicine, the program closely follows the traditional training rooted in the Gyud Zhi, the fundamental text of Tibetan medicine, known as The Four Tantras in English. The ancient Tantras classify an amazing 1,600 types of diseases and corresponding treatments using more than 3,000 medicinal plants native to the Himalayas. The comprehensive curriculum covers Tibetan physician ethics, medical history, diagnostics, the origins and causes of disease, treatments and includes clinical training, herbal preparation and Kunye massage therapy among other key topics.

Traditional Tibetan Medicine

With a history going back over 2,500 years, traditional Tibetan medicine is one of the oldest continuously practiced healing systems on Earth. Regarded as science, art and philosophy, it is an ancient form of holistic heath care indigenous to the Tibetan people that integrates the core Buddhist principles of altruism, karma and ethics. Traditional Tibetan medicine evolved into a synthesis of thousands of years of accumulated empirical knowledge from China, Persia, India and Greece. It has been practiced continuously in Tibet and is still practiced today wherever Tibetans live in exile.