Ten doctors and 73 masters students have graduated from Lhasa's College of Tibetan Medicine since doctoral and masters degree courses were launched in 1999 and 2004, as Tibet pumps money into developing traditional local healthcare.

The first two doctors obtained their degrees in 2007, according to figures revealed by Tibetan health authorities on Friday.

In 2015, the autonomous region quadrupled the annual budget supporting Tibetan medicine to 40 million yuan (about 6.1 million U.S. dollars).

There are 41 traditional Tibetan medical establishments in Tibet, with 2,600 medics and 1,506 beds.

Tibetan medicine is at least 2,300 years old. It has absorbed influences from traditional Chinese, Indian and Arab medicine. It uses herbs, minerals and sometimes insects and animal parts.