Page 29 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

During the 17th century, a set of seventy-nine medical drawings
illustrating the Blue Beryl commentary on the Four Tantras,
composed by Desi Sangye Gyatso, then regent to the Fifth Dalai
Lama, were created. The tenacious scope of these medical drawings
continues to constitute both a medical and artistic legacy that
has been widely copied in subsequent centuries and for which
these illustrations are directly based. What is depicted in these
illustrations includes the following: a) a diagram of divination through
urinalysis; b) moxibustion (burning of moxa or other substances on
the skin to treat diseases or to produce analgesia) and points for
minor surgery; c) moxibustion according to the ‘King of the Moon’
treatise; d) bloodletting channels and moxibustion; e) a posterior
view of vulnerable points; f) localization of the purulence of the
viscera; g) course of lifespan principle (through capillary system); h)
frontispiece outlines of treatment and diagnosis with depictions of
Bhaishajyaguru; and i) an anterior view of vulnerable points.

It is clear from these few illustrations why the 17th-century drawings
had such an enormous impact, for each feels intricate and subtle.
The elaborate mandala depicts worlds within worlds surrounded
by the harvesting and making of medicine from plants in a blend
of botany, herbal medicine, ethereality, and ritual. The Medicine
Buddha depicted within swaying yellow and blue leaves with multi-
colored stems appears as a botanical dream state. The colorful
intersecting sashes whirling around the body in the illustrated
channels of bloodletting and moxibustion is a merging between
anatomical structure and flowing movement. Other examples of
these illustrations are further referenced in A. Aris (ed.), Tibetan
Medical Paintings: Illustrations to the Blue Beryl Treatise of Sangye
Gyamtso (1653-1705), New York, 1992.
Provenance
Christie’s, New York, 18 September 2002, lot 151

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