This Thangka painting is the first of a composition of the seventy-nine sets of paintings of the Blue Beryl Medical Charts, the most important text of traditional Tibetan medicine.

Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru is depicted in the center of a colorful and complex mandala sitting inside a palace in the city of Sudarshana, the ‘city of medicine’ known to Tibetans as Tanadug. Bhaisajyaguru is surrounded by several Hindu and Buddhist deities and bodhisattvas, Indian rishis and Tibetan monks including Arya Nagarjuna. Other important deities and gurus are displayed in line on top of this thangka as well as in other charts of the Blue Beryl.

The central palace has four gates, each with a guardian and open to the four cardinal points. The mandala is composed by a forest of medicinal trees and mountains, a garden of medical plants, gems and minerals and other ingredients used in traditional Tibetan medicine that are common also in Indian Ayurveda.

Tibetan medicine, also known as Sowa Rigpa (the science of healing) teaches that the purpose of life is to be happy. Like the root tantra, which is said to contain the entire Tibetan science of healing this thangka aims to represent Sowa Rigpa in it’s entirety.