The paintings reproduced in the Tibetan Medicine Cards illustrate a 17th-century commentary on the ancient medical text that is the basis of traditional Tibetan medicine. Sangye Gyamtso (1653-1705), the Regent of Tibet, composed the Blue Beryl commentary on the Four Tantras and designed its extraordinary illustrations - 79 paintings in all, executed in mineral colors - bone-black ink, vermilion, azurite, yellow arsenic, and shellac. The original paintings are thought to have been destroyed in the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. This set contains 28 two-sided full-color annotated cards, 7 + x 8 5/8, and a four-page pamphlet introducing Tibetan Buddhist medicine and the history of the Blue Beryl; in cigar-box packaging.