Episodes in the life of gYu-thog Yon-tan mGon-po (Yuthok) and his ancestors. Distemper painting by Chundu, 1970.

Yuthok, the 8th-century physician-saint, is surrounded by various incidents in his life. Yuthok's birth is depicted at the top left and below this to the right his ancestor 'Dre-rje rGya-gar Vajra finds a woman adorned with turquoises in the river: she had promised him these for a cure he had effected, and he put them on the roof of his house. From then on his family was called 'Turquoise Roof'. At the top centre, Yuthok is shown taking pearls to King Khri-sroṅ-lde-btsan (742-797), and at the top right receiving teachings from Indian pandits at Bodh Gaya

Right centre, Yuthok establishes a medical college at Kongpo in Tibet; below, disciples mourn his death. At the bottom, Yuthok's Indian ancestor Bi-byi dGa'-byed and an Indian woman doctor Be-lha dga'-mdzes (Indian physicians Gajay and Vijay), come to Tibet: they watch a girl carrying her sick mother to die in the wilderness. To the left, the Indian doctors are shown taking the mother indoors to treat her. Above this, the Tibetan king Nyatri Tsenpo (Lha-tho-tho-ri [4th-5th cent.]) realizes their civilizing influence and invites the Indian doctors to stay, giving Gajay a Tibetan princess for his wife. The son of this alliance became the ancestor of the Yuthok lineage

[Sikkim], [1970]

1 painting : distemper on sized linen mounted on silk brocade ; distemper 64 x 46 cm

Marianne Winder, Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London 1989, p. 71, thankas banners and paintings no. 1

Wellcome Collection 47066i