The Chinese Tibetan pharmacy and other ethnic medicines have attracted the world's attention and will be better known in the future, said Huang Fukai, president of the Beijing Tibetan and Ethnic Medicine Hospital, Wednesday. On the inauguration ceremony of the Association of Chinese Ethnic Medicine (ACEM) Wednesday, Huang was elected deputy executive chairman for his great contribution to the promotion of Tibetan pharmacy and minority ethnic medicines.

"Chinese ethnic medicine, especially Tibetan pharmacy has been approved useful by international medical circle," Huang said, noting that the Beijing Tibetan and Ethnic Medicine Hospital annually received more than 20,000 person times of foreign visitors. "The foreigners thought our ethnic medicine magical and amazing," Huang said at the inauguration ceremony. Even foreign doctors would not imagine that such diseases as rheumatoid diseases, ankylosing spondylitis, hemiplegia could be treated by Tibetan medicinal bathing.

Ever since its founding in 1992, the hospital has received more than one million person times of patients, of which 30 million-plus came from China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as 60 countries and regions.

"However, the whole world even the inland Chinese people were still lack of knowledge on the thousand-year-old Tibetan medicine, " Huang said, stressing that the ethnic medicine declined or even vanish since most of them have no paper record. To save the ethnic medicine, the Chinese government financially supported experts and scholars to carry out large-scale investigation in Tibet, to rescue and collect traditional treating methods of the Tibetan people. Up to now, a book collecting 10,000-plus kinds of recipes was complied and published. With the government's support, the Beijing Tibetan and Ethnic Medicine Hospital joined hands with universities to innovate ancient medicine, to develop substitute of rare herbs and to build up databank of rare medicine species. The hospital has now made breakthrough on planting of safranal and zangmuxiang that were widely applied in the modern Tibetan medicine. Huang revealed that a joint-program between the Chinese and German governments was on the way to show the Chinese ethnic medicine in European countries.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2007)