Ngakpa Dawa Ngödrüp
a practitioner of Ögyen Menlha
More than five hundred herbs are known in Tibetan medicine. The primary plant, which is depicted in thangkas of the Ögyen Menlha, is the myrobalan tree (Tib. Aruranamgyal; Terminalia chebula), and is regarded as the most precious of medicinal plants. Dawa Ngödrüp was a practitioner of Ögyen Menlha. Other herbal plants in Tibetan medicine include grasses, henbane, ginseng, sedge, Chinese basil, cumin, cobra lily, bulrush, strawberry and fenugreek.
Ngala Nor’dzin Pamo, the current incarnation of Dawa Ngödrüp, is not an herbalist, and only knows a little about the process of harvesting, preparing and blending herbs, but as a homoeopath she has considerable experience of the use of plants in homoeopathy. Homoeopathic remedies are derived from extremely diluted tinctures of individual plants. Ngala Nor’dzin hopes to illustrate Dawa Ngödrup’s herb lore by describing the details of character and habitat of a couple of such plants, and the relationship of these details to their use in homoeopathic medicine (see link below – homœopathic medicine).
