About the book:

Mamba is the Tibetan word for doctor of medicine, while Rasang means 'college' or 'research institute' in that language.Mamba Rasang is home to many masters of traditional medicine. They serve the Medicine Buddha by saving the sick; they offer not the scents of incense but the heady aromas of Tibetan and Mongolian herbal medicine.This novel takes us back to life on the grasslands on the Ordos in the dying days of the 19th century, a rich portrait of a place and its people. Confl icts are intense, the cast of characters wide and various and we meet the doctor monks who are prepared to sacrifice everything to preserve one of the great cultural treasures of the Mongols.