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The hospital lies a block west of Jokhang Temple, north of Yathok Lu. It was founded in 1980 as the largest Tibetan traditional hospital in Tibet, covering a building space of about 30,000 square meters and having about 150 beds. Visitors will see Tibetan doctors treat patients in traditional ways by acupuncture, bloodletting and moxibustion. Its library collects massive medical sutras and medical thangkas. Those delicate, finely detailed drawings were painted hundreds of years ago, for the purpose of medical teaching. 




A thangka shows relatively developed surgery and surgical appliances while another depicts incredibly accurate understanding of human conception and embryology. Tibetan medical theory about embryology is almost a thousand years earlier than Darwin's evolutionism. The hospital is also famous for its astrology and astronomy.    Tibetan traditional medicine has a long history of more than 2,300 years. It has connections with Chinese, Indian, Nepalese and Kashmir medical traditions. Although there is still suspicion about its theory, Tibetan traditional medicine has been proved effective. The mysterious medical tradition has aroused interests of many medical institutes at home and abroad.