The Origins of Moxibustion
According to the research of Prof. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, moxibustion therapy originated in Tibet over 4,000 years ago. The common historical narrative is that the techniques of acupuncture and moxibustion originated in China, and that the English term moxa is derived from the Japanese term mogusa. However, Norbu (himself a scholar of language and history) asserts that the origin of the term moxa is, in fact, from the Tibetan metsa (me means “fire” and btsa means “focal point”). It is difficult to ascertain the exact line of transmission, but we can make an educated guess to the linguistic and cultural transmission from Tibet to China to Japan.[1] Norbu’s assertion is validated in the Su Wen, the source-text of classical Chinese medicine, which states:

Moxa comes from the north, the highland, where wind, cold and ice reign. . . . The cold that prevails generates illnesses of emptiness that the people cure with moxa.

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