Islamic talismanic tradition in nineteenth-century Asante

interrelated combination of philosophy and practice" (p. 41). When speaking of conception, Trogawa accepts the Western biological notion of the union of semen and ovum (p. 48), which, as pointed out by Nawang Dakpa in his paper, 'Certain problems of embryology according to the Tibetan medical tradition' (pp. 82-95), is unknown to traditional Tibetan medicine (p. 84). Nawang Dakpa deals with some points of embryology according to the Vai.durya sngon-po ('Blue Beryl'), the famous commentary to the rGyud bzhi, written in 1678-1688 by the great scholar and lay regent of Tibet, Sangs-rgyas-rgyamtsho. The whole process of conception and birth is conveniently illustrated by two of the twelve black-and-white plates appended to Emmerick's paper (ES 16). Emmerick's contribution, 'Some Tibetan medical tankas' (pp. 56-78), is a detailed analysis of sixteen painted scrolls photographed during the author's visit to the Medical and Astrological College of Lhasa in 1983. Emmerick has compared these pictures with relevant Tibetan medical iconographic sources published up to 1988. The paintings belong to a series of seventy-nine scrolls, the earliest set of which was commissioned by Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho to illustrate his Vaiduirya sngon-po. Although a set has been recently published by Serindia in Tibetan medical paintings (by Y Parfilonovitch, G Done and F Meyer, London, 1992), Emmerick's contribution is interesting in as much as it shows variants between paintings belonging to different sets, both in the iconography and in the captions. A place apart is occupied by Charles Bawden's paper, 'Written and printed sources for the study of Mongolian medicine' (pp. 100-25), where the author, besides classifying the literature on the subject, attempts to assess the bearing which the Tibetan medical tradition had upon Mongolian medicine. Biographical notes on the contributors are appended to the volume (pp. 126-8). It is a pity that the publication of these proceedings should have been delayed for so many years and followed that of Tibetan medical paintings, which have provided so much new information, especially concerning the Tibetan materia medica. In spite of this handicap, Aspects of classical Tibetan medicine is a useful contribution to the history of Tibetan medicine and shows that the only possible approach to such a complicated topic is the close collaboration of Western and Tibetan physicians, linguists and historians.