Yutok Yonten Gonpo

Life & Legacy

Yuthok Yonten Gonpo the Younger (Tibetan: གཡུ་ཐོག་གསར་མ་ཡོན་ཏན་མགོན་པོ, Wylie: g.yu thog gsar ma yon tan mgon po) (1126–1202) was a Tibetan doctor and ngakpa (lay, non-monastic tantric practitioner), credited with composing the Four Medical Tantras (rgyud bzhi), a four-book treatise on Traditional Tibetan Medicine which forms the main course of study in the Tibetan medical tradition. He is widely regarded as the main founder of Tibetan medicine, mostly based on his composition of the Four Medical Tantras. His other important contribution to Tibetan culture was the Yuthok Nyingthik, whose full name is the Yuthok Nyingthik Guru Sādhanā, ‘Compassionate Sunlight for Dispersing Suffering’s Darkness’ (g.yu thog snying thig bla sgrub sdug bsngal mun sel nyi ma’i ’od zer), which is the main Tantric Buddhist practice-cycle associated with Tibetan medicine. It is traditionally considered to be an important spiritual component of healing in Tibetan medical culture, and moreover is regarded in all Tibetan Buddhist traditions as a very special method for attaining awakening and realization quickly.