By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
Kathmandu, April 7 – Tibetans in Kathmandu observed World Health Day today at the nunnery in Swoyambu, Kathmandu amidst a health awareness talk show by Amji (Tibetan Doctor) Tashi Dorji La of Mentsekhang and organized by the Swoyambu and City office. There were over couple hundred local Tibetans present on the occasion including many newly arrived Tibetans from Tibet. Amji La is of opinion that this is probably the first time it was observed by Tibetans in Kathmandu.
About the occasion Amji La said, “it is difficult for people to understand details about Tibetan medicine, so I advised people about personal health, child vaccines, impacts of smoking and drinking etc.”. According to him one of the major diseases in our Tibetan community is gastroenteritis and that’s primarily due to eating habits of Tibetans, we use lot of fat in our food, chilli, dry meat, Tibetan butter tea etc.
Tibetan medicine is used by many people in the world and it has proven record of curing some serious diseases but the irony is that Tibetan medicine is not always the first choice when people become ill. This scribe asked Amji la the reason for this and he commented that, “I think in most of the cases, people would first resort to allopathic medicine, if they don’t get well or if the allopathic medicine has poor results then only they come to us and it has become like a custom. Nowadays, it has become a trend that after using allopathic and all other remedies, people come to consult with our Tibetan medicine as a last resort hoping that it could have a solution, it is probably because there have been some miracles by some doctors, we have some examples. In general, the health awareness among Tibetans depends mostly on the livelihood condition of household, rich people take good care of their health but poor people don’t care much unless it is very serious”.
Amji Tashi Dorji La is a young popular Tibetan doctor known for his precise nerve reading, he graduated from TMAC Mentsekhang in Dharamsala, he hails from a family of Tibetan medicine practitioners, his grandfather Amji Wangdak Chengbar (late) was a famous doctor in Tibet and continued his practice in the exile also and his uncle was also a Tibetan doctor; so far Amji Tashi Dorji La has practiced Tibetan medicine for over five years and he has also visited other places like Riga, the capital of Latvia and Moscow, the capital of Russia for lecture and medical consultation on Tibetan medicine last year; he currently works at the Mentsekhang Clinic in Dhalko, Kathmandu.
