Diagnosis: Diet

What you eat, how you eat, and when you eat is the basis of all Tibetan medical treatment. Manhattan-based Tibetan doctor Dr. Choeying Phuntsok uses diagnostic techniques such as pulse reading to demonstrate how improper diet becomes a primary factor in the development of disease. He will also offer nutritional advice based on the dominant force of the volunteers he diagnoses on stage. If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out this questionnaire.
About the Speaker
Dr. Phuntsok was born in eastern Tibet where he began classical Tibetan medical studies at Derge Tibetan Medical School in 1976. He subsequently joined the Tibetan community in exile in India and continued his training at the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute (also known as Men-Tsee-Khang) in Dharamsala, India from 1981 to 1987. During this time he studied under Dr. Lobsong Choepel, a senior teacher in Tibet and Dr. Tenzin Choedrak, one of the most eminent masters of the Tibetan medical tradition and the Senior Personal Physician to the Dalai Lama. Having served on the medical faculty of the Men-Tsee-Khang for the past decade, most recently as Deputy Director of Pharmacy, Dr. Phuntsok is currently one of the most senior traditional Tibetan physicians in the West. Since arriving in America, Dr. Phuntsok was appointed a senior associate at the Institute of East West Medicine and became a member of the Meridian Medical Group where he bases his practice. He is also currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Tibetan Medical Association. . He is an expert in botanical pharmacology and has worked on plans to cultivate Tibetan medicinal herbs in the United States. Dr. Phuntsok has given many specialty talks and workshops in Tibetan Medicine both in the US and in Mexico and Europe. He frequently lectures at the Tibet House and The Open Center in New York in an effort to educate the public on the history, theory and practice of Traditional Tibetan Medicine. In 1998, and again in 2003, Dr. Phuntsok served as panelist and workshop presenter at the 1st and 2nd International Congresses of Tibetan Medicine.
Image: Detail from Cooked Foods, Food Poisoning, and Balanced Diet; Hua Khar Jaintsa, Qinghai Province, China; 1995-1996; pigments on cloth; promised gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection