Traditional Tibetan medicine offered in most counties in Tibet

Traditional Tibetan medical services reached more counties in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region over the past three years, the regional health department said on Sunday. Of Tibet's 74 counties, 21 have county-level Tibetan hospitals, while Tibetan medical treatment departments have been set up in counties that do not have Tibetan hospitals. Additionally, more than 300 Tibetan folk doctors provide Tibetan medical care in the region's farming and pasture areas. Over 75 percent of the township-level hospitals and clinics in the region offer Tibetan treatment and medicine, an increase of 25 percent from 2009, according to the latest statistics from the department. Tibetan medicine is at least 2,300 years old. It has absorbed the influences of traditional Chinese, Indian and Arab medicine and is practiced in Tibet and the Himalayan region. Similar to traditional Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine uses herbs, minerals and sometimes insects and animals for treatment. To sustain traditional Tibetan medical treatment, Tibetan medical workers have been selected to receive professional training from skilled and experienced Tibetan doctors, said Yu Fei, deputy director of the regional health department. A total of 171 Tibetan doctors have been trained and have gained the region's certification qualifying doctors to provide Tibetan medical care.