King of Essences, Mercury in the Tibetan Medico-Alchemical traditions

This essay explores some selected alchemical sources included in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon and in several of the most important Tibetan tantric and pharmacological collections. Starting from an outline of the context and significance of mercurial alchemy from the tenth to the fifteenth century, we examine the practice of making gold (gser ’gyur) and producing the mercurial elixir (dngul chu’i bcud len grub pa) as described by several Tibetan sources, including The Nectar that Transmutes into Gold ; The Universal Lord’s Elixir that, Dispelling All the Diseases, Promotes Physical Strength ; The Treatise on the Mercurial Elixir ; and The Compendium on the Transmutation into Gold. The last three Indian treatises were translated from Sanskrit by Orgyenpa Rinchen Pel (O rgyan pa rin chen dpal, 1229/30-1309), who created a distinctive practice to refine mercury and influenced fourteenth and fifteenth century Tibetan iatrochemistry.