1000th Birthday of Terdhon Drapa Ngonshey

In the history of Tibetan Medicine, Terdhon Drapa Ngonshe (གཏེར་སྟོན་གྲྭ་པ་མངོན་ཤེས) is in the chain of the unbroken lineage of Tibetan Medicine, and is a man who used his life to the preservation of traditional surgery. He is a man beyond compare.

He was born in the year of 1012 A.D, and was contemporary with Marpa Lotsawa, a great master of Kagyue sect. He began his life—doing a shepherded to a family settled in Ngayul, for five years and then learned traditional knowledge, including Tibetan Medicine and Surgery from Zey Lama.

His name "Terdhon Drapa Ngonshey" partly accounts his works and achievements. 'Terdhon' is a re-discoverer of ancient text. "Drapa" refers to his morality being at the centre of scholarly attraction. "Ngonshey" refers to his immeasurable knowledge on Abhidharma, (Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific re-workings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras).

In an attempt to save his teacher, Zey from cardiac effusion, he made his teacher frightened by spraying very cold water over the face, at same time inserted a surgical instrument called ‘thurma’ to drain out the fluid from the heart, unfortunately resulting in the death of his teacher due to malpractice of the surgery. 

At the age of 79, he also suffered cardiac effusion and found room for the practical demonstration of surgical therapy called "thurma" in Tibetan Medicine, to his followers, and practiced it on his body and unfortunately died of the unsuccessful surgery.   

He handed over the great work of Youthok Gonpo to the next generation. The work of the Four Medical Tantras or Gyueshi, is pragmatically ascribed to Youthok Yonden Gonpo Nyingma. At the rein of the King Trisong Detsen, he composed the Four Medical Tantras, the fundamental text book of Tibetan Medicine partly based on Indian and Chinese Medicines. There is a stream of explanation that Youthok Y Gonpo secretly hid it at Samyae U tsi and Terdhon Drapa Ngonshey collected the buried treasury scripture from the shrine place (Sorig Kundue 1990), and passed it on to the next generation.

He composed great works including "Compendium of Tantra" or རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་བསྡུས་དོན།

His determination to pass the practice on to the next generation, is beyond human thought. Without his work and contribution, the lineage of Tibetan Medicine would have been 'broken'.

References:

Thinlay J. gangs ljongs gso rig bstan pa'i nyin byed rim byon gyi rnam thar phoghs bsgrigs. Dharamsala: Men-Tsee-Khang, 1991                                                                       

Tsering T. krung go'i gso rig kun 'dus lus bod kyi gso ba rig pa. Tibet: Minority Publishing House, 1990