“Secret Medicine” in the Writings of Sanggyé Gyatso: the Encoded Esoteric Material of Therapeutics

Abstract

Secrecy is the practice of concealing information from others. Depending on its nature and motivation, the morality of secrecy is always debatable. The culture of secrecy can also be observed in medical practice, despite the fact that valuable therapeutic knowledge is covered up as a result. In a seventeenth-century commentary on the Tibetan medical work, the Four Tantras (rgyud bzhi), called the Extended Commentary on the Instructional Tantra of the Four Tantras (man ngag lhan thabs) by Desi Sanggyé Gyatso (sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653–1705), there are encrypted terms called “secret medicines” (gsang sman) that are incomprehensible to ordinary readers and can be found throughout the entire manuscript. Nonetheless, the key to these encryptions can only be found in separate texts attributed to different authors, indicating that the practice of encryption is present. This study attempts to explore these esoteric approaches to the healing of life-wind illness, with specific references to the encrypted nature of this commentary and a particular focus on the possible rationale for the need of encryption in Sanggyé Gyatso’s writings.