About Medicine Buddha Thangka

The point of departure and core of the Buddha’s thought is his teaching on suffering. Human suffering must be eliminated. The Buddha can be seen as a physician because he diagnosed suffering and developed his teaching on liberation, or dharma, as medicine to escape from the cycle of rebirth. He also saw himself as a physician, namely one who immediately healed the wound, in view of the patient, by asking about the cause of the injury.
Those for whom this highly cerebral level is a step too far would sooner think to call on the Buddha to heal physical ailments. This concept developed particularly in Tibet. Tibet owed much of its medical knowledge to texts from India. Thus the science of Ayurvedic medicine also reached the Himalayas. Considering this knowledge was not specifically Buddhist, although it did accompany Buddhist teaching, a Buddha was created, along the analogy of Shakyamuni as spiritual healer, who symbolize medicinal knowledge. This system was expanded to the eight medicine Buddhas. Of these eight, Bhaisajyaguru is the most important exponent. He attained great popularity and is the only one who is depicted by himself without the other seven. In popular belief, looking at or touching a thangka of medicine Buddhas has a curative effect.

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