Theriac Recipes (Dar ya kan) as the Ultimate Cure Against Epidemics in Two Tibetan Medico-Alchemical Collections of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

This study contributes to the broader history and epidemiological context of theriacs during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries through the analysis of Tibetan sources attesting to the presence of complex compounds known as theriac (dar ya kan). It is part of an ongoing project on the history of theriacs and alexipharmacs in the Tibetan medical system. Starting with a concise review of the current state of the field and early Tibetan medical texts on theriacs, it focuses on the analysis of recipes preserved in the Great Vase of the Amṛta of Immortality (’Chi med bdud rtsi bum chen; hereafter Vase of Amṛta) and the Great Measure of Gold, Pith Instructions of the Brang ti Medical Lineage (Brang ti lha rje’i rim brgyud kyi man ngag gser bre chen mo, hereafter Measure of Gold).