| །ལུས་ཀྱི་དབྱེ་བ་རྟེན་དང་ན་ཚོད་དང༌། རང་བཞིན་ནད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་དབྱེ་བ་བཞི། |
The body is based on 4 classifications: sex, age, body physique and state of health.
1. Sex
| །རྟེན་གྱིས་དབྱེ་ན་ཕོ་མོ་མ་ནིང་གསུམ། |
The categorization of the human body on the basis of sex involves 3: male, female and in-between.
2. Age
| །ན་ཚོད་དབྱེ་བ་བཅུ་དྲུག་བར་བྱིས་པ། །དེ་ལས་ལུས་ཟུངས་དབང་པོ་གཟི་མདངས་སྟོབས། །འཕེལ་འགྱུར་བདུན་ཅུའི་བར་དུ་དར་མ་སྟེ། །དེ་ལས་ཟད་པ་ཕན་ཆད་རྒན་པོ་ཡིན། |
From birth until 16 - period of childhood. From 16 to 70 - period of adulthood, as bodily constituents, sensory power, complexion and physical strength increase during this period. Thereafter, when bodily constituents and sensory functions begin to decline, is said to be an old age.
3. Body physique/ constitution/ topology
| །རང་བཞིན་རྐྱང་པ་ལྡན་དང་འདུས་པ་བདུན། |
The nature of the body is classified into 7 types in terms of the dominance of a single Nye-pa (single humor), Dan-pa (combination of two humors), and Due-pa (all 3 humors).
Every individual possesses a unique body physique, based on the dominance of particular elements in their body (earth, water, fire, wind and space). Physical shapes and forms can undergo significant changes due to diet, behavior, place of living, illness, or medication, but these alterations do not reflect the natural constitution. The body's constitution is established during fetal development through a combination of parental contributions and karmic imprints. The mother's diet and behavior during pregnancy have a particularly significant impact. As a person ages, their deep nature and subtle personality gradually develop and become more distinct, much like a blooming flower.
When a patient visits a doctor, one of the first things the doctor does is make an overall assessment of the patient's constitution or topology. This is done by observing the patient’s behaviour, manner of moving and talking, as well as through extensive questioning. However, it is sometimes tricky to correctly assess the natural constitution of the person, especially when seeing them for the first time. In Himalaya, throughout the history, doctors had a role of modern days Family doctors. They would often observe the patients from the youth age and when their Nye-pa (humors) are in balance. This way, it is easy to establish person's natural constitution. However, like it was said above, diet, place of living and various diseases can make assessment difficult at a time. When patient comes with Nye-pa (humoral) imbalance, very often physical and mental features will be that of imbalance, and not of natural constitution. Therefore the best assessment is made when the patient is in relative balance. For example, Beken dominant person with chronic liver diseases may exhibit more characteristics of the Tripa, like headaches, frequent infections and inflammation, high blood pressure with face redness and irritated eyes. Due to heat in the liver, this person’s personality may change to irritable and short tempered. On top of that, stress from disease or life situations may also lead to Wind imbalance with symptoms like insomnia and emotional instability. On the first exam, we might see that most characteristics belong to Tripa/ Wind dominant person, however these will be only symptoms of disorders and not natural constitution on that person.
When person is in active imbalance, we should focus on diet, lifestyle, medicine and procedures that are focused on bringing back this person to balance. However, it is important to know your natural constitution as this knowledge will teach about particular tendencies towards specific body/mind disorders, as well as diet and lifestyle changes that you can apply to stay in healthy. This is a very important aspect of preventative medicine.
a) Wind dominant person
| །དེ་ལ་རླུང་གིས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ནི། །དབྱིབས་སྒུར་ཤ་སྐེམ་མདོག་སྔོ་སྨྲ་བ་མང༌། །གྲང་ལྷགས་མི་བཟོད་འགྲོ་ཚེ་སྒྲ་དང་བཅས། །ནོར་ཆུང་ཚེ་ཐུང་གཉིད་སྲབ་ལུས་བོངས་ཆུང༌། །གླུ་དང་དགོད་དང་འཐབ་མོ་མདའ་ལ་དགའ། །མངར་སྐྱུར་ཁ་ཚའི་རོ་ལ་སྲེད་པ་སྟེ། །བྱ་རྒོད་ཁྭ་ཝའི་མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡན་པ་ཡིན། |
The characteristic features of Wind dominant person: Wind constitution is dominated by wind element and has its qualities, such as dry skin, bitter and astringent body nature, light and unstable body and mind.
Physical tendencies: they naturally have a thin, light and delicate bodies, either short or too tall and have difficulty in gaining weight. With age their bodies tend to bent and have frail stature. They naturally have bluish complexion, with dry and rough skin, that is prone to chapping, corns, calluses, cracked heels. They have small, sharp looking eyes, that tend to be dry. Their nails are thin and brittle, and hairs are dry and coarse and prone to dandruff and split ends. They have cool bodies with enlarged skin pores, and prominent, stiff and cracking joints. Women tend to enter menopause earlier than other constitutions, menstruation tend to be irregular and scanty.
Digestive heat: unstable, tendency towards constipation and dry stool, a firm abdomen and easy to feel cold.
Dietary tendencies: prefer diet having sweet, sour, bitter and spicy tastes. Fasting usually makes them sick. Their body pores are open and they constantly lose energy and heat, therefore they need to eat more often. Advised to eat warm, nourishing foods such as rich meat broths.
Lifestyle tendencies: fond of talking, singing, dancing, laughing, flirting, debating and quarrelling. Love archery. Advised to dress warm, rest in a warm, dark space, and share pleasantries with trusted friends. They are believed to have unstable wealth and shorter life. They are light sleepers, however with many dreams.
Environmental tendencies: they are sensitive to cold weather and wind. Prefer warm, sheltered and calm environment.
Wind people are supposed to have characteristic features resembling vultures, crows and foxes.
b) Tripa dominant person
| །མཁྲིས་པའི་རང་བཞིན་སྐོམ་དད་བཀྲེས་ཤས་ཆེ། །སྐྲ་ལུས་མདོག་སེར་བློ་རྣོ་ང་རྒྱལ་ཆེ། །རྔུལ་ཆེ་དྲི་ང་ཚེ་ནོར་ལུས་བོངས་འབྲིང༌། །མངར་ཁ་བསྐ་བསིལ་ཟས་ལ་སྲེད་པ་སྟེ། །སྟག་སྤྲེ་གནོད་སྦྱིན་མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡན་པ་ཡིན། |
The characteristic features of Tripa dominant person: Tripa constitution is dominated by fire element and has its qualities, such as high body temperature, oily face and hair, hot and sour and high acidity in the body.
Physical tendencies: tend towards a medium-sized, muscular frame. Have yellowish hair and complexion, and slightly oily medium-thickness hair with tendency to premature greying and baldness. They are intelligent and proud. They have warm bodies and sweat profusely. They have medium size eyes that are often irritated. Their teeth prone to cavities, bleeding gums and cancer sores. Women often suffer from PMS with high irritability, rashes, and headaches.
Digestive heat: they tend to have storing digestive heat, tendency to have loose stool. They have strong appetite and usually excessive thirst, soft abdomen and easy to feel warm. They are able to digest raw vegetables and fruits and generally they assimilate food without difficulty.
Dietary tendencies: they are fond of a diet having sweet, bitter and astringent taste and a cooling effect. They often cannot digest milk, fatty food and alcohol makes them sick.
Lifestyle tendencies: they generally have a middling lifespan, moderate wealth. They enjoy exercise, fighting and competitions.
Environmental tendencies: Tripa personality is advised to rest in a cool, shady place, with fresh breezes, flowing water and fragrant plants.
Their characteristic features are linked to those of tigers, monkeys and harmful spirits.
c) Beken dominant person
| །བད་ཀན་རང་བཞིན་ཅན་ནི་ལུས་བསིལ་ཞིང༌། །རུས་ཚིགས་མི་མངོན་ཤ་རྒྱས་ཁ་དོག་དཀར། །དབྱིབས་དགྱེ་བཀྲེས་སྐོམ་ཉོན་མོངས་ཐན་པ་བཟོད། །ལུས་ཚོ་ཚེ་རིང་ནོར་མང་གཉིད་མཐུག་ཅིང༌། །ཞེ་སྡང་འདམ་རིང་རང་བཞིན་ངང་རྒྱུད་བཟང༌། །ཚ་སྐྱུར་བསྐ་རྩུབ་ཟས་ལ་སྲེད་པ་སྟེ། །སེང་གེ་ཁྱུ་མཆོག་མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡན་པ་ཡིན། |
The characteristic features of Beken dominant person: Beken constitution is dominated by earth and water elements and has its qualities, such as low body temperature , cool and heavy body and mind, sweet and salty body nature.
Physical tendencies: they tends towards a thick, larger stature, with thick flesh covering their bones, have tendency to overweight and have fair complexion. They have cool, smooth skin, with soft lustrous hair. They have upright body posture and great endurance of hunger, thirst, mental sufferings and extreme climatic conditions. They are physically well built. Menstruation is usually heavy and long in duration, with bloating and lethargy.
Digestive heat: Beken dominant people have relatively cool body temperature, lower digestive heat, sweat less and easily feel cold.
Dietary tendencies: they prefer a diet having hot, sour and astringent taste and a rough quality. They are prone to sweet cravings and emotional snaking. It is difficult for them to digest carbohydrates, raw food and sweets.
Lifestyle tendencies: they enjoy long life, wealth and deep sleep. They have a great sense of tolerance and are generous and noble. Their lifestyle tend to be more sedentary, has strong endurance, not easily distracted or dissuaded from tasks or goals. They are patient and hospitable, responsible and dependable. Advised to dress warm and exercise well.
Environmental tendencies: they thrive in dry and warm environment.
Their features are likened to those of lions and elephants.
| །ལྡན་དང་འདུས་པ་འདྲེས་ལས་ཤེས་པར་བྱ། |
Dan-pa (combination of two humors) and Due-pa (all 3 humors) dominant people can be evaluated by combined characteristics features of a person.4. State of health
Constitutional Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT)
There is wonderful online quiz - Constitutional Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT). By answering 47 questions, in the end, it will give you your approximate ration of Wind/ Tripa/ Beken.
4. State of health
| །ནད་ཀྱིས་དབྱེ་བ་རྣམ་པར་མ་གྱུར་གྱུར། །རྣམ་པར་མ་གྱུར་ལུས་གནས་ཐ་མལ་ལ། །ནད་མེད་གནས་དང་རིང་དུ་འཚོ་བར་བྱ། །རྣམ་གྱུར་ནད་ཀྱིས་བཅོམ་པའི་ལུས་དེ་གསོ། |
The classification of human body according to its state of health is divided into the balanced (healthy) state and the imbalanced (diseased) state. The balanced state involves maintaining health without illness and leading a long life. The imbalanced state is swathed by the illness and should be treated to bring it back to healthy state.