A detail from one of the paintings in the exhibition, depicting the audience to the Healing Buddha's first explanation of his medical teachings. (The History Museum of Buryatia)

The Sackler Gallery is showing part of the richest and rarest of Tibetan Buddhist texts. The exhibition consists of a series of 17 scroll paintings created to illustrate the "Blue Beryl," a 17th-century medical commentary designed to unify the Eastern healing arts.

While Buddhist practitioners, like early Western doctors, regard many illnesses as arising from climate and imbalances of bodily fluids and "humors," the paintings in this exhibition also deal quite graphically – sometimes grossly – with practical solutions to physical problems.

These "thangkas," as the paintings are called, were among 77 that were copied from the originals around 1920 and taken to a monastery in the Russian Republic of Buryatia in Siberia, where they were hidden from Stalin's massive assault on religion. Meanwhile, the original scrolls disappeared in Tibetan religious and political turmoil, so that now these are the only examples known to survive.

On loan from the History Museum of Buryatia, the thangkas appear as fresh and vivid as the day they were painted. The scrolls, which are the work of several anonymous artists, are executed in mineral and organic pigments mixed with chalk (for density) and glue, which makes them glow and sparkle. Each scroll has dozens or scores of vignettes illustrating anatomy, medical treatments, medicinal plants and minerals, and the habits of diet, thought and conduct that lead to good or bad health.

Though rarely used in Tibetan medicine, various animal parts are depicted in this detail. (The History Museum of Buryatia)

Sex is a major preoccupation of Buddhist healing. Graphically illustrated are physical and mental sexual hygiene, and practices ranging from marital intercourse through illicit sex, masturbation and bestiality. Each illustration is associated with commentary, of which only brief and innocuous snippets are included in the captions. Copies of the splendidly illustrated exhibition catalogue are provided in the gallery, but visitors will search them in vain for translations of the steamier material. Like the wall text, the catalogue is written with a prudence verging on prudery.

The practice of medicine as illustrated here is surprisingly interventionist. Tibetan physicians purged patients with emetics and enemas and bled them enthusiastically and often. They practiced manipulation equal to the most vigorous contemporary chiropractor and had an armamentarium of surgical and dental tools as fearsome as any Western sawbones. And they knew where to cut: These illustrations include detailed depictions of inner organs and the circulatory and nervous systems.

Virtually all of the external treatments and remedies shown here have fallen into disuse. The exception is moxibustion, the practice of burning small cones of herbs on various parts of the body.

Viewing the scrolls is an extraordinary experience. From a distance they appear to be visual mantras, beautiful, balanced and harmonious designs. But come closer and one is presented with devilish details, including images that will not go away. Among these are women menstruating and one apparently giving birth to a donkey, plus straightforward illustrations of all the things that can issue from all the orifices.

Spiritual and clinical observations and instructions appear cheek by jowl, resulting in sort of an ethereal/earthy ping-pong. It is a marvelous show. But do not go at lunchtime.

THE BUDDHA'S ART OF HEALING: Tibetan Medical Paintings From Buryatia – Through Jan. 3 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW (Metro: Smithsonian). 202/357-2700 (TDD: 202/357-1729). Open 10 to 5:30 daily and till 8 on Thursdays.

From Washington the exhibition will travel to the Museo Franz Meyer, Mexico City; Indiana University, Bloomington; the Aspen Art Museum and the Newark Museum.