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In Tibetan medicine, ‘vulnerable parts’ (gnyan pa gnad) are bodily structures which should not be damaged. Most of these anatomical locations are important in terms of surgical care and the management of wounds. They are described in the primary classical text of the Tibetan medical tradition, the Four Treatises (Rgyud bzhi), and in far more detail in its respective commentaries. A list of these more than three hundred delicate spots is included in at least two sixteenth-century commentaries, but its origin remains unclear. With the help of the medical ‘scroll paintings’ (thang ka) accompanying the seventeenth-century Blue Beryl (Vaiḍūrya sngon po) commentary to the Four Treatises, we can identify the locations of many of these vulnerable anatomical structures. However, it is uncertain if these identifications have remained consistent over time. With increasing integration of Tibetan medical practices into the Chinese health care system, it became necessary to find and define new terms. A veritable revolution in Tibetan medical terminology has taken place over the past several decades. Through a careful examination of these ‘vulnerable parts’ of the body, including an exploration of three examples, this article examines the shift of anatomical designations and the coining of new terms for anatomical details in classical and modern publications. Correctly identifying the vulnerable parts matters a great deal, especially with regard to patient safety.

In the inner courtyard of the medical college at Labrang Monastery the visitor finds 19 murals depicting the contents of the first two pans of the Four Tantras {Gyiisht), the well-known treatise on Tibetan medicine. The origins of these murals raise questions about a number of substantial differences in style and structure of the 'tree metaphor' that exist between them and the famous medical thangka illustrations based on the important commentary on the GyUshi, the Blue Beryl The physician and teacher Tsangmen Yéshé Zangpo was the first principal of the medical college at Labrang Monastery. But whether he also created this particular tree metaphor on the murals at Labrang is uncertain. A text written by the Lhasa-based scholar, Lozang Chödrak, explains the structure of the second part of the Gyiishi in such a similar way, that it can be concluded that his written instructions served as the template for the Labrang murals. This reveals that the design of the mural paintings, which have been repainted at least two times, can be dated back to the beginnings of the first medical college at Chakpori.'

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