Ulaanbaatar
Medicine bag
Society
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Mongolians have been using traditional medicine for centuries to adapt to the country’s harsh climate. Mongolia's first traditional medicine school, ‘Manba Datsan’, was founded in the late 17th century by Lama Gegeen Luvsandanzanjaltsan.
In Mongolia, the traditional medicine practitioners were
trained for 20 years from their young age (6-8) and were granted medicine bags
in recognition of their skills and knowledge to treat people. At that time, a
medicine bag was considered a kind of diploma. The skills and rank of the
traditional medicine practitioners were seen from the material of the bag which
it was made of.
The medicine bag, being kept at the museum of Khentii aimag,
contains 20 pieces of leather and hide bags of different sizes and five
dosing spoons made of iron, copper, and brass. The length of the spoon ranges
from 14.9 cm to 21.9 cm. The leather bags are filled with various medicines and
are wrapped around the collar with straps. Bone and wooden plates with inscriptions
in Tibet are connected to the collar of the bags. The Tibetan inscriptions
appear to be the names of the medicines in the bag. The bag also contains wheat
wrapped in cloth and a long thin roll of paper with Tibetan writing.
Traditional medicine practitioners carried all their necessary medical tools,
such as medicine, dosing spoons, etc.
