The New Light on Tibetan Medicine series is Bedurya’s most ambitious project. Our aim is to transform the extensive materials accumulated by Dr. Pasang Yonten over five decades of study, practice, and teaching into a set of comprehensive textbooks. No English-language publication of comparable scope has appeared so far.
This series will provide a unique contemporary overview of the science of healing known as Sowa Rigpa. It sets out to be an essential guide and reference for students of Tibetan, Asian, and Buddhist medical traditions, as well as for health professionals, therapists, and researchers.
New Light on Tibetan Medicine: Volume II – Methods
COMING OUT IN SEPTEMBER!
Methods is the second volume of the New Light series. This textbook systematically lays out the vast Tibetan medical arsenal of approaches and techniques that facilitate both diagnosis and treatment. Clarifying and building on the foundational classic the Four Tantras (Gyüzhi) in combination with key traditional commentaries, it provides an unprecedented practical synthesis relevant and applicable in this day and age. In addition to covering standard diagnostics such as anamnesis, pulse reading and analyses of body constitution, urine, and tongue, innovative additional techniques including lingual, eye and ear vein reading receive special attention. In terms of treatment, dietetics is particularly extensive, with more than 200 classified foods and beverages. Besides chapters on pharmacy and a total of 20 internal and external therapies, the Appendix also contains a table characterizing more than 380 single ingredients and a highly useful indications list of 100 medicinal formulas.
- English title: New Light on Tibetan Medicine: Volume II – Methods
- Author: Dr. Pasang Yonten Arya
- Year of publication: 2025
- Language: English
- Dimensions: 28 x 21,7 x 2,6 cm
- ISBN: 978-2-9701464-4-5
- Hardback: xxiv + 296 pp.
- Suggested retail price: € 60.00
New Light on Tibetan Medicine: Volume I – Foundations
Foundations is the first textbook of the New Light series. This beautifully illustrated volume introduces the Buddhist roots and historical development of Sowa Rigpa, as well as the structure of the most important Tibetan medical text: the Four Tantras (Gyüzhi). Based on this classic yet adding novel insights, the main focus of the book is the systematic explanation of the three humors, metabolism, embryology, and the functions of the organs, channels, and chakras. Summarized in the form of metaphorical tree diagrams and placed in the context of the physician’s ethical code, these chapters provide a solid theoretical foundation for understanding the gross and subtle physiology of the body-mind. New Light on Tibetan Medicine: Volume I – Foundations is clearly structured, packed with insightful figures and tables, and backed up by an extensive glossary of Tibetan terms, making this pioneering work easily accessible.
- English title: New Light on Tibetan Medicine: Volume I – Foundations
- Author: Dr. Pasang Yonten Arya
- Year of publication: 2022
- Language: English
- Dimensions: 28 x 21,7 x 2,4 cm
- ISBN: 978-2-9701464-3-8
- Hardback: xxii + 258 pp.
- Suggested retail price: € 60.00
Reviews
“New Light on Tibetan Medicine is a welcome, long-awaited, and thorough introduction to Tibet’s medical legacy written from the perspective of an eminent Tibetan medical practitioner. It offers Pasang Yonten Arya’s knowledgeable commentary based on decades of personal study and skills in teaching Sowa Rigpa in Europe and beyond. Foundations—the first volume of the New Light series—is beautifully designed, clearly written, and well-structured. Presenting a contemporary example of cross-cultural translation in action, it indeed sheds new light on a continuously evolving medical tradition.”
“In New Light on Tibetan Medicine, Pasang Yonten Arya provides the first textbook on the theoretical foundations of Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) in English. Having taught students of Tibetan medicine in Europe for decades, Arya has skillfully developed an introduction to Tibetan medical theory and practice that is easily understood by a Western audience. By integrating Buddhist philosophy and rich Tibetan cultural perspectives, Arya elucidates the foundations of Tibetan medicine not only as a healing tradition but also as a spiritual practice, an approach that has remained relatively restricted to the Tibetan medical field but is made public in this text.”
