The Knowledge of Healing

Directed by Franz Reichle

89 minutes / Color
English subtitles
Release: 2004
Copyright: 1996

The first feature documentary dealing extensively with Tibetan medicine, one of the most highly developed medical systems, THE KNOWLEDGE OF HEALING presents evidence that deserves serious consideration as a supplement to Western medical technology.

Instead of being based on biochemistry, Tibetan medical thinking, which is strongly rooted in Buddhist principles, views the human body as governed by an elaborately organized and codified system of energies flowing through a system of channels. Its practice has been taught over last four centuries in Tibetan medical schools, most of which were destroyed by the Chinese in the late 1950's and early 60's.

The few Tibetan physicians who weren't executed went into exile. Some of them reestablished themselves in Dharamsala, in northern India. The film introduces Tenzin Choedrak, a leading Tibetan medical authority, and shows him treating the 14th Dalai Lama for a minor ailment. The Dalai Lama himself appears twice in the film to argue forcefully for the acceptance of Tibetan medicine as a valuable addition to the Western system.

The film begins with a brief outline of the principles of Tibetan medicine and goes on to show physicians in Dharamasala and in Buryatia (part of Siberian Russia) treating patients with a variety of ailments. Although there are no overnight miracle cures, the Buryat center claims a remarkably high cure rate for radiation-related ailments associated with the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl.

After visiting these centers and observing diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from everything from partial paralysis to the traumas of torture, the film moves westward to research centers in Israel and Switzerland where clinical studies are being conducted and several Tibetan medications industrially manufactured. The researchers have discovered that the Tibetan remedies work, although the actual chemical processes by which they heal remains largely mysterious.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF HEALING is not propaganda for alternative medicine, but a thorough, objective examination of an ancient interpretation of human physiology, and an investigation into an amazingly successful method of healing.

"A surprisingly compelling medical narrative…Fascinating [and] persuasive."—LA Weekly

"This information-packed film is an absorbing glimpse at illness and injury as viewed by another culture."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A gentle, optimistic film... An invitation to examine a useful alternative approach to the human body and its mechanisms."—Stephen Holden, The New York Times

"An intriguing glimpse at the art of Tibetan medicine, its relation to Western science and, implicitly, the idea that China's relationship with Tibet can be viewed as a crime against humanity."—Newsday

"Excellent! May surprise hardcore aspirin takers."—Time Out

Other Ways to Watch

Individuals

Available online from:

Colleges, Universities, Government Agencies, Hospitals, and Corporations

Purchase DVD for $298.00

Available for educational streaming from:

Credits

A Film by Franz Reichle
Featuring S.H. Tenzin Gyatso, XIV. Dalai Lama, Tenzin Choedrak, Tschimit-Dorschi Dugarow and Karl Lutz

Select Accolades

  • 2005 Association for Asian Studies Film Festival
  • 2004 Annual Conference on South Asia (University of Wisconsin)
  • Second International Congress on Tibetan Medicine (2003)

RELATED TITLES

Gendun Choephel, a legendary figure in Tibet, turned from the monastic life he was born to (as the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama), to become a fierce critic of his country's religious conservatism and isolationism.

Luc Schaedler | 2006 | 97 minutes | Color | English subtitles

How do body and mind exist as an integrated whole? The eminent neurobiologist Francisco Varela devoted his entire life to answering this question. Featuring His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

Franz Reichle | 2005 | 80 minutes | Color | English | English subtitles

A family on the Himalayan plains discovers their dog is worth a fortune, but selling it comes at a terrible price.

PEMA Tseden | 2012 | 88 minutes | Color | Tibetan | English subtitles

An astonishing journey of redemption, faith, and devotion, following a group of villagers who leave their families and homes to make a Buddhist "bowing pilgrimage" to the holy capital of Tibet.

Zhang Yang | 2016 | 117 minutes | Color | Tibetan | English subtitles