Seasonal health tips in Tibetan Medicine: Winter diet and behavior

In Tibetan Medicine prescribing proper diet and behavior is very individualized. Factors such as age, constitution, locale and existing health conditions are all taken into account when a Tibetan doctor makes dietary or behavioral recommendations. This is also true when prescribing Tibetan herbs. The same disease in two different people may have very different herbal prescriptions based on these factors mentioned above. This is why the study and application of Tibetan Medicine is so complex.

With that said there are some general guidelines for healthy people on appropriate diet and behavior for maintaining good health. In the Rgyud Bzhi  (the Four Tantras of Tibetan Medicine), there are 3 chapters specifically on appropriate behavior for maintaining good health.  One of these chapters is about how to maintain good health based on each season. 

In this chapter the seasons are presented differently from how we divide them. Instead of four, they are divided into six. There is early spring, late spring, summer, autumn, upper winter and lower winter. The Tibetan calendar is based on lunar cycles, but to give you a rough idea, early spring (dpyid) is March and April, late spring (so ga) is May and June, summer (dbyar) is July and August, autumn (ston) is September and October, upper winter (dgun stod) is November and December and lower winter (dgun smad) is January and February.

So that puts us roughly right in the middle of upper winter. So what does the Rgyud Bzhi say about upper winter?

dgun dus grang bas ba spu’i sgo bkag te

me yis stobs ldan rlung gi sbar ba yis

zas nyung gyur na lus zungs ‘bri bar ‘gyur 

de phyir dang po’i ro gsum bsten par bya

de tshe mthsan mo ring bas bkres gyur te

de yis lus zungs ‘bri bar ‘gyur ba’i phyir

til mar gyis byug sha khu snum pa bza’ 

lpag pa’i gos dang lham ni rtags tu bgo 

dugs dang me nyi’i ‘od la ran par bsro

 sa yis khang pa nyis rim nang du bsdad

So now you know, right? Ok, I’m kidding (But I bet a few of you out there can read Tibetan!)

I will try to explain the basic meaning of these stanzas based on my teacher Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo’s explanations. For the sake of simplicity I am not giving a literal translation.

First it explains that because of the cold of winter our pores close and the fire of our body increases, blown by the wind. The fire this is referring to is our metabolic or digestive fire. In Tibetan Medicine the body’s digestive power is always referred to as heat or fire. It next explains that eating too little will cause the constituents of the body to decline.  This is because the heat is burning so strong during the winter that if we do not eat enough we more or less begin to burn up our body’s nutrition. On this topic our teacher explained to us that dinner is the most important meal during winter and should be an ample portion of food.  From the time we go to sleep until we wake up is generally the longest period of time we go without food and therefore our body will easily burn up its reserves.

The Rgyud Bzhi also explains that we should rely on the first three tastes. In Tibetan Medicine there are six basic tastes. They are: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot and astringent. The above sequence is the order of their nutritive capability. Therefore the first three tastes are sweet, sour and salty. Sweet is the most capable of supporting the constituents of our body. It is comprised of the earth and water element. Therefore its qualities are stable, heavy and so on.  That is also why we get fat when we eat too much sweet :). In a practical sense this is referring to eating a good amount of well-cooked meats, grains and root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes.

It goes on to explain some other basic preventative measures we can take during the winter, some of which we are all very accustomed to. They include applying sesame oil to the body, eating meat broth and oily foods, wearing warm clothes and shoes all of the time, warming up with hot packs (like hot stones) or next to the fire or in the sunlight and staying in an earth house with double windows (a warm house).

These are the basic guidelines for maintaining good health in the upper winter. The next stanzas are on the lower winter. They say that the lower winter is extra cold so it is advised to adhere to the guidelines of the upper winter. That’s simple enough. It also means that we won’t have to post on the blog about seasonal behavior until March!

As you can see, this subject could be talked about for many pages. The Rgyud Bzhi is very condensed. My intention is to just share the basic idea, so that it might be of benefit for people in their efforts to maintain good health. Of course that means we all have to think about our own condition and circumstances to apply this information appropriately. For one thing, this is very much based on maintaining good health. If we already have an imbalance in our health then that must be factored into our daily diet and behavior. Also this is obviously based on a region that gets very cold in the winter. So we must balance the application based on our regions seasonal influences.

Please feel free to post any comments or questions you have about this directly under this blog entry.