RETURN NOW TO WEBSITE/I DONATE
This school based originally in the region of Dolpaten has gradually migrated to the monastery of Triten Norbutse, around the early 2000s, because of the political unrest in Nepal at that time.
Protect an heritage
The very old tibetan medicine takes root in the Bon culture which precedes of numerous centuries the raising of the Indian Buddhist tradition. Taught by a buddha of such previous era — the Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche —, this authentic tradition includes various practices which were mistakenly attributed, until not so long, to archaic forms of shamanism.
Nevertheless, the medicine Bön includes a very complete traditional medical system, which rests on a complex method of diagnosis; itself leaned to known textual sources ; incorporating techniques such as the examination of the pulse and of the urine.The Tibetan doctor (amchi) recommends the abandonment of the noxious behaviors and promotes an adapted food. Remedies are made from healing plants and from minerals; physical therapies as the Tibetan acupuncture or the moxibustion are used to treat the patient…
According to Craig R. Jane, during the cultural revolution, numerous Tibetan doctors were qualified as enemies of class. Then, they underwent particularly severe treatments, were systematically sent to labor camps. Finally, it was forbidden to them to practise the tradi-medicine. In 1973, the Tibetan medicine had almost totally disappeared » (in wikipedia.org). Very fortunately, the evolution of the mentalities and of the ways of broadcasting the knowledge, as well as the numerous international conventions favorable to the protection of the traditional cultural heritages, allow to envisage the survival of a legacy of a singular importance.
Who are they ?
Nowadays, the students — young men and women —, are mainly of Nepalese origin and benefit from the total ancestral Bon transmission; legacy protected throughout ages, although at present the modern medicine is accessible in all the region. This shape of medicine can turn out complementary for the Westerners. Since 2007, a building situated around the monastery shelters the school and constitutes a pension for the young students.
The program
The program contains five years of studies in pharmacopoeia, accompanied with the acquisition of a general knowledge which goes to the English learning. The link with Dolpaten is not broken, as every year, the students go there in order to harvest themselves their plants; even, cultivate them on site. Given the ecological disturbances which undergoes the Himalayan region, such a program of conservation of plants is essential for the future of the whole world.
Three additional years allow the students to learn how to deliver a diagnosis and to become definitively doctors.
The conditions of consultation: TRADITION WITHIN MODERNITY
Formerly, a traditional amchi was never separated from its social background. He consulted his patients in his place of residence and everybody knew him personnaly. His diagnosis was free and it was available day and night for the house calls of his most seriously sick patients. He himself supplied plants, minerals, medicine and practised massages, moxibustion and acupuncture. He was, for the society, what family doctors were to us. No need for sign, everybody knew where he lived.
Today, at Triten Norbutse, the health center is still opened to all ; but it is from all Nepal, even from the whole world, that the patients come. This accessibility has been of a great importance during the earthquake of 2015 ; as numerous people have been able to be treated quickly and for free.
From now on, amchi are invited abroad to share their knowledge and promote its conservation : thus, their beam of intervention has considerably increased.
Your gifts (donations): the school is very grateful to you for it
Hardly two years ago, plants were crushed by hand and the purchase of a set of machines was necessary in order to increase the production and to make it available for the largest number, without decreasing the quality of the medicine.
We had, thanks to your donations, from the beginning of the year 2014, been able to send €3000 to the medicine school, which had already received half of the financing €- 4000—on behalf of a foreign sponsor. The projected budget having been revised downwards (€7000 instead of €8000) the school acquired smaller, but better adapted machines.
association triten norbutse 