A Blessing for Newborns

Translator’s Introduction

This blessing for newborns has been excerpted from The Four Medical Tantras, the foundational scriptures of the Tibetan medical system. It comes from an exchange in the third tantra, The Oral Instructions Tantra (man ngag gi rgyud), between the sage Manasija (yid las skyes), the main interlocutor in The Four Medical Tantras, and the great sage Vidyājñāna (rig pa’i ye shes), the emanation of the Medicine Buddha. Manasija inquires about how to care for children, and Vidyājñāna advises that, when children are first born, one should first examine the auspicious or inauspicious omens and then read aloud the present aspiration before cutting the umbilical cord (lte ba), celebrating, and letting the newborn nurse. Further rituals are described including washing the newborn’s body with fragrant, lukewarm water and writing a hrīḥ with saffron on their tongue.

While it is always important to follow the instructions of one’s amchi or qualified Tibetan medical doctor, we decided to make this aspiration available here so that anyone could recite it upon the birth of a child.

The first line of the aspiration puts words to the inexpressible love that a parent feels upon seeing their child for the first time. Similar to the English word “heart,” the Tibetan word snying refers to both the physical organ and the seat of emotions. This dual valence captures how the child is not only the parent’s own flesh and blood, but is born of the core of their being. The second line features a stock phrase common to Sanskrit literature that aspires for a long, healthy life in which one is able to witness a hundred harvests (literally, “a hundred autumns”).[1] The use of this classic expression evokes the language of the Kangyur, lending The Four Medical Tantras an air of canonicity and, by extension, authority. The third and fourth lines enumerate a litany of aspirations on behalf of the child for all that is good; everything from health and longevity to fortune, good luck, prosperity, blessings, and well-being. Through the interdependence of the parent’s unconditional love and the truth present in these words, the recitation of this aspiration becomes a speech act or performative utterance capable of positively shaping the course of the child’s life.

Version: 1.1–20260716