The Institute supplies traditional medicines and medical services, trains doctors, andconducts research on traditional medicinal plants to identify the ingredients and develop new products. The Institute has a library dating back to around 1616, when Tibetan Buddhism was introduced to Bhutan. The books and recipes were collected from monasteries where scholars had preserved the medical lore.

The Institute offers a five-year course leading to a bachelor's degree for physicians, and a three-year diploma course for the compounders who create the medicines. The pharmaceutical and research unit produces the 103 essential compounds in the traditional medicine list, and directs cultivation of the medicinal plants. You can visit the institute’s museum that showcases ingredients that include herbs, minerals, precious metals, gems and animal parts that have healing abilities.