Tibetan medicine's influence is expanding beyond the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

 

For example, An'erning granules, a remedy for the common cold in children and approved by the State Food and Drug Administration, is a leading paediatric patent medicine nationwide.

 

Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, considered incurable in western medicine, is claimed to be 94 percent successful in the Arura Hospital in Xining where Tibetan doctors use a holistic approach including medicated bathing, special diets and psychology.

 

Konchok Gyaltsen, honorary president of the hospital, believes that it is the unique combination of philosophy and herbalism that creates and maintains a healthy mind and body.

 

Dorje, director of the Qinghai Provincial Tibetan Medicine Research Institute, argues that Tibetan medicine was advanced even in ancient times, with Tibetan physicians performing brain and cataract surgery 1,000 years before their western counterparts. At the Qinghai Tibetan Culture Museum in Xining, dozens of surgical instruments used 1,300 years ago are on display.

 

Daindar, director of the Men-Tsee-Khang cardiology department, has practiced Tibetan medicine for 33 years and is a firm advocate of the cardiopulmonary function analyzer and other modern equipment to speed up diagnosis and treatment.

 

He said the hospital had accumulated a plethora of modern equipment over the past five years. Since 2014, the hospital has received 256 million yuan (about 38 million U.S. dollars) from the central government to raise standards.

 

Soinam, head of medical development at the hospital, explained how traditional herb processing had been transplanted from workshops to laboratories. The hospital began research on quality standards for medical herbs in 2006, and have since covered nearly 150 plants.

 

Soinam and his team are working hard to turn Tibetan medicine from its traditional decoctions and pills to granules which are more popular in the market but rely on broader use of modern extractive technology.