Tibetan Medical Preservation Projects In The Himalayas

By Author: JosephChinnock
Total Articles: 3
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Tibetan Formulas donates 10% of its profits to the Foundation for the Preservation of Tibetan Medicine, a non-profit organization which funds small Tibetan Medical schools and medicinal plant habitat conservations in the Himalayas, to ensure Tibetan Medicine will survive to benefit future generations. Joseph Chinnockis the US coordinator for fundraising.

Traditional Tibetan Medicine has been taught in remote areas of the Himalayas through a mentorship system which passes this ancient knowledge from father to son or daughter. The process cultivates emotional maturity and spiritual insight as well as medical skill. The traditional doctors live and work in the mountains close to the medicinal plants upon which they rely for their medicines. In many remote Himalayan villages, these doctors provide the only medical treatment available to fellow villagers.

For over two decades, two dedicated traditional doctors, Amchi Smanla and Sister Palmo, have been working diligently with scarce resources to help preserve Tibetan Medicine. Joseph Chinnock ...
... has travelled extensively with these doctors in Ladakh, India.

Amchi Smanla, a seventh-generation traditional doctor trained by his father through a mentorship which lasted twenty years, also was a student of Venerable Trogawa Rimpoche, one of the greatest master Tibetan doctors living today. Over the past 14 years, he has lead the training of over 400 amchis in hundreds of villages throughout the Himalayas. When Amchi Smanla began his work, the older amchis were isolated in their villages.

There were no opportunities for them to enhance their skills or meet other amchis to share their experiences. He organized them into regional associations and conducted workshops in Tibetan medical theory, diagnosis, herb identification, and medicine making. Local resource centers where established where the doctors could meet and share their experiences. Now that the older amchis are again confident in their practices, Amchi Smanla sights are focused on the new generation.

Sister Palmo was a young Tibetan medical student at the Tibetan Medical & Astrological Institute in Dharamsala when she heard the Dalai Lama speak about the importance to mankind of sustaining the practice of Buddhism. She was so inspired by the Dalai Lama's message that she took her vows as a nun. After graduating as a doctor, she returned to her native Ladakh to work to improve the conditions of Ladakhi nuns. Her first step was to organize a seminar for Ladhaki nuns, who until then had never received formal instruction in spiritual practice or enjoyed a day free from physical labor. Ladakhi nuns still share many of the hardships of the poor in Ladakh, including lack of medical care.

Sister Palmo's dream is the construction of a Nun's Tibetan Medical School at Ladakh to help bring health care to rural villagers. It will train nuns as traditional doctors and they will provide health care for their sister nuns and Ladakhi villagers who now lack health care. A beautiful mountain site at Rizong, Ladakh has been donated as a site for the medical school. One nun from each of nine remote nunneries will be selected to receive training as a traditional doctor over a four-year period. After graduating, they will return to their nunneries and treat their sister nuns and villagers free of charge.

Ten percent (10%) of Tibetan Formulas' profits are donated to the Foundation for the Preservation of Tibetan Medicine to support Sister Palmo's and Amchi Smanla's work in preserving Tibetan Medicine for generations to come.

For more information please contact Joseph at jcboulder@gmail.com.