Syzygium aromaticum ལི་ཤི་

Syzygium aromaticum ལི་ཤི་

English nameClove

Tibetan name: Li-shi (ལི་ཤི་)

Part used: seed (འབྲས་བུ)

Taste and potency: astringent, hot and bitter taste (རོ་བསྐ་ལ་ཚ་ཞིང་ཁ་བ་); bitter post-digestive taste (ཞུ་རྗེས་ཁ་བ་); oily, firm, smooth and warm potency (ནུས་པ་སྣུམ་ལ་བརྟན་ཞིང་འཇམ་ལ་དྲོ་བའོ་)

 

Profound value of Syzygium aromaticum in Tibetan Medicine:

  • Wind affecting the Life-channel (སྲོག་རྩའི་ནད་) - in Tibetan Medicine there is such a term as "Wind affecting the Life-channel". It means that Wind or energy instead of travelling in proper channels, goes to the Life-channel and disturbs its functions. It can cause such symptoms as epilepsy, dizziness, fainting. Difficulty in breathing and swallowing. Shortness of breath, difficulty of inhalation. Loss of balance and vertigo. Loss of control over the body and mind, wrong perceptions, confusion, hallucinations. Sounds in the head and ears, tinnitus. Feeling of head emptiness. Feeling of no purpose. Could even become the cause of madness. 
  • Digestive Harmony (ཕོ་བའི་མེ་དྲོད་): Clove aids in digestion and soothes gastrointestinal discomfort (ཟས་མི་འཇུ་བ་). It improves appetite, especially in the mornings (དང་ག་འགག་པ་). It also improves the "warmth" of both stomach and liver (ཕོ་མཆིན་གྱི་དྲོད་ཉམས་པ་). 
  • Combined "cold" and Wind disorders (གྲང་རླུང་གི་ནད་): general weakness, feeling of cold in the body, especially in lower parts and limbs. Weak digestion, bloating, heaviness. Lower back pain. Cramps and heaviness in the legs. Foggy, passive and dull mind. "Cold" kidney disorders and dysuria. 
  • Oral Health: Clove is celebrated for its benefits to oral health in Tibetan Medicine. It helps alleviate toothaches, gum pain, and oral infections.
  • Clove is one of the Six Excellent Drugs and is used in many formulas.

 

According to the Second Tibetan Medicine Tantra (བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུད།):

།ལི་ཤིས་སྲོག་རྩའི་ནད་དང་གྲང་རླུང་སེལ།

Li-shi cures disorders related to life-channel and cold disorders associated with Wind. 

 

Present in Daknang formulas:

  • DAKNANG 1
  • DAKNANG 2
  • DAKNANG 15
  • DAKNANG 69
  • DAKNANG 100

 

 

References:

  1. The Tibetan Art of Healing by Ian A. Baker
  2. Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine by Thinley Gyatso
  3. Healing with Form, Energy, and Light by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
  4. Tibetan Medicine and Other Holistic Health Care Systems edited by Charles Leslie
  5. A Handbook of Tibetan Medicinal Plants by Dr. Tsering Dorjee Dekhang (MD)
  6. Tibetan Medicinal Plants by Dr. Tenzin Dakpa
  7. Essentials of Tibetan Traditional Medicine by Thinley Gyatso and Chris Hakim
  8. བོད་ཀྱི་གསོ་རིག་དང་ཨ་ཡུར་ཝེ་དྷ་ཀྲུང་དབྱིའི་སྨན་གཞུང་བཅས་ལས་བསྟན་པའི་སྐྱེ་དངོས་སྨན་རྫས་ཀྱི་དཔར་རིས་དང་ལག་ལེན་གཅེས་བཏུས་བློ་གསར་རིག་པའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། by Dr. Tsultrim Kalsang (Men-Tsee-Khang)
  9. ༄༅།།བོད་ཀྱི་གསོ་བ་རིག་པའོ་རྒྱུད་བཞི་ལས་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་དང་བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Root Tantra and the Explanatory Tantra by Men-Tsee-Khang publisher
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