Before dawn in the Indian Himalayas, scores of patients clutching small vials of urine line up patiently to see Yeshi Dhonden, a Tibetan monk who became a legend as personal healer to the Dalai Lama.
Tibetan medicine, known as Sowa-Rigpa, draws on centuries-old techniques such as blood-letting, cupping, and moxibustion — burning herbs on energy points of the body — to try to heal ailments.
The practice draws on aspects of traditional Chinese medicine and India’s Ayurvedic system as well as its own unique theories and treatments. It also features spiritual practices including meditation and Buddhist prayer.
Photo: AFP
Today it attracts devotees from all over the globe, hoping for help with conditions from back pain to cancer and degenerative diseases.
“If the sick come to me I will take care of them,” Dhonden said at his private clinic in McLeodganj, surrounded by Tibetan scrolls and beaming images of his most famous client.
Dhonden — who spent three decades tending the health of Tibet’s spiritual leader — relies on his senses to divine what ails patients.
“I don’t go for tests like X-ray and all. I trust myself. I just test the pulse and the urine,” he said.
A touch at the wrist is how he ascertains the health of vital organs and blood pressure.
The urine, held in a white porcelain cup, is stirred with two small bamboo sticks. Color, bubble formation, sediment and smell can all shape the diagnosis.
Devotees swear Tibetan medicine works, though few scientific studies have been conducted into its efficacy. The teachings — contained in about 2,000 textbooks and the messages of the Buddha, considered the guardian deity for all spiritual healers — are believed to have originated in Tibet.
However, as it features elements of both ancient Chinese and Indian healing practices, and is rapidly evolving from a niche tradition into popular alternative treatment, both nations have scrambled to claim it as their own.
The Asian giants last month nominated Tibetan medicine for inclusion on a UNESCO list for “intangible culture.” China and India have engaged in countless spats over the Tibetan community since New Delhi granted sanctuary to the Dalai Lama in 1959.
The traditions of Tibetan medicine are based on four root texts known as the “tantras” that evolved in two medical colleges, Chakpori and Men-Tsee-Khang, in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
These tantras classify thousands of diseases into separate categories, with unique mixtures of herbs and minerals — mostly sourced from the upper reaches of the Himalayas — listed as remedies for each ailment.
“We believe diseases are caused when our inner energies are imbalanced,” said Tsewang Tam Din, a medical practitioner at the McLeodganj branch of the Men-Tsee Khang school, one of many across India.
Taking a delicate golden hammer, Din demonstrated how healers heat the instrument over fire and place it against the body to offset pain and other common malaises.
“The idea behind our medicine system is that one should not have to take medication all his life for chronic problems like arthritis and diabetes,” Din said in McLeodganj, nicknamed “Little Lhasa” for the large Tibetan community residing there.
The increasing popularity of Buddhism in the West, as well as a global Tibetan diaspora has helped spread awareness about its unique alternative medicine.
However, like other Eastern health treatments, it is viewed with skepticism among the conventional medical fraternity.
A lack of standardization and clinical trials means it will be some time before Tibetan medicine can go mainstream, cardiologist D. Prabhakaran from the Public Health Foundation of India said.
However, even doubters acknowledge the natural treatment appears to assist some patients in certain cases.
“I know of anecdotal examples where people with terminal diseases have lived much longer than predicted after taking Tibetan medicine,” Prabhakaran said. “I think there’s a lot of empathy towards the patient in Tibetan medicine. Basically it comes from the thinking of Buddhism and that may be one of the reasons why it’s becoming more popular.”
In 2010, India officially recognized Tibetan medicine as a “science of healing” and enshrined it within the nation’s healthcare system, paving the way for future research and investment into the spiritual discipline.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS