Tenzin Phuntsok

CHINA, Tibet, Qamdo

Born in eastern Tibet to a family of physicians, Tenzin Phuntsok was a monk of the Gelug school, as well as a physician, scholar, and artist. He renounced in Dzigar Monastery at the age of eight, and in addition to studying Buddhism, he studied medicine and painting. Tenzin later earned his “geshe” degree at Sera Monastery in Lhasa.
Though the two disciplines are not usually associated, the traditional Tibetan means of categorizing medicine had a profound impact on the stylist features of Tibet art. Tenzin produced several written works that expounded theories in the fields of Buddhism, linguistics, and in particular, art and medicine. In 1758, he composed his first book on art entitled Annotations on Painting Procedures, in which he provided commentary on Tibetan painting and included the biographies and works of famous Tibetan painters. His other written composition on art, Comprehensive Analysis of Enshrinement, offers specific details regarding the procedure involved in the enshrining of Buddha statues. Additionally, Tenzin is widely known for his treatise on the herbs of Tibetan traditional medicine, Crystal Rosary, written in 1739.