Originally built in 1916, Mentsekhang (Tibetan Traditional Hospital)（Chinese:藏医院;pinyin:zàngyīyuàn) was the place of research for Tibetan medicine and calendar calculations for the former Tibetan local government. After a large expansion in 1980, Mentsekhang became the center for the treatment, training, research and production of Tibetan medicine. Covering an area of more than 40,000 sq meters (about 10 acres) and with a staff of 450, Mentsekhang is also the biggest Tibetan traditional hospital in Tibet.
Mentsekhang contains special medical departments for brain blood vessels, orthopaedics, paediatrics, internal medicine and surgery, etc. It also has two institutes of Tibetan traditional medicine and calendar calculations, and also one Tibetan medicine factory. The history of Tibetan medicine can be dated back to 2,300 years ago. It summed up the Tibetan people's experiences as they fought against diseases and assimilated their local treatments with traditional medicine of the Chinese, Indian, Nepalese and even Sri Lankan.

Besides the Tibetan people's own experience, the development of Tibetan traditional medical science has a close relationship with Chinese and Indian traditional medical science. The main diagnostic methods Tibetan doctors use today are almost the same as traditional Chinese medicine. In the seventh century, when the Princess Wencheng came to Tibet, she brought a Chinese medical book and Chinese doctors to the Tibetan People. The next Chinese Princess, Jincheng brought another medical book to Tibet and some more doctors as well. In the eighth century, a famous Tibetan doctor, Yutok Yonten Gonpo went to India to study Indian medicine. This knowledge greatly accelerated the development of Tibetan medical science. This doctor learned a lot from Chinese and Indian traditional medical science and incorporated his knowledge into the system of Tibetan medical science.

Because of its efficacy on many diseases, Tibetan medicine has drawn wide attention from home and abroad since the 1980s. Doctors do use traditional methods to diagnose in the hospital. For example, doctors talk with patients; observe their appearances and tongues, and take their pulses. Most of the prescriptions are compounds because there are fewer side effects when a prescription is composed of two or more recipes of herbal medicines. What's more, Tibetan medicines also have special effects on such ailments as hypertension, heart disease, paralysis, gastric ulcers, falling sickness, etc. Large numbers of foreign experts and scholars come to Tibet each year to study and investigate Tibetan medicine. Some countries have even introduced Tibetan medicine to their home countries.