Amchi Conference: Producing Efficacious Medicine-2011
Amchi Conference: Producing Efficacious Medicine
5th- 12th December, 2011
8 daylong workshop programme on “Making Efficacious Medicines” was hosted by THE HIMALAYAN AMCHI ASSOCIATION (HAA) at Shechen Monastery in Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal. The HAA was founded in 1998, also supported by Ministry of Health of Nepal and CTEVT.
Dr. Sienna Craig, (Dartmouth College), Calum Blaikie (University of Kent), Barbara Gerke (Humbolt University) and Theresia Hofer (University of Oslo) along with 12-15 Amchis, the Tibetan Doctors from Nepal, Tibet and Ladakh attended the workshop.
Day 1- Amchis shared their training experience, medical practices and expectations from workshop.
Day 2- Ven. Choekling Rinpoche hosted Wang, the medicine empowerment ritual.
Day 3- Discussion on medicines, ingredients and what medicine to make
Day 4-Herb market visit
Day 5-7- Complete pharmacy and medicine making. Blessing medicine.
Day 8 - Closing ceremony and certificate distribution.
Nepal remains the *only* country in the greater South, Central, and East Asian regions where Sowa Rigpa, the Tibetan "Science of Healing", is not officially recognized by the government is significant. Not only is it recognized now by India and of course also by China, but it is part of the national health care system in Bhutan and Mongolia. The place of Nepal in the past, present, and future of this form of indigenous knowledge and healing science is crucial, from many perspectives, and the lack of recognition for Sowa Rigpa in Nepal brings with it many paradoxes.
Nepal remains a major source of raw materials for much of the booming Tibetan medical industry in China (not to mention the Ayurveda industry in India), and yet increasingly strict governance structures and export regulations to China for medicinal plants threatens not only centuries old trade but also contemporary livelihoods and also helps to consolidate economic benefit from the production of industrial Tibetan medicines in China instead of in Nepal. Nepal is a regional leader in efforts at medicinal plant cultivation (even though much more work, energy, and resources are needed on this front). Yet at the same time, Nepal's long lineages of Sowa Rigpa practitioners find themselves often between a "rock and a hard place". They are the caretakers of a type of healing science that requires years of expertise in fields ranging from botany, zoology, and pharmacology to cultural geography and Buddhist philosophy yet they are socially and economically marginalized, which impacts their ability to make good medicines and also to help sustain and transform this tradition in a way that will allow future generations of Nepali practitioners of Sowa Rigpa to thrive, and to continue to treat patients in both urban and rural contexts. In these and other ways, the issue of Sowa Rigpa / Amchi medicine recognition in Nepal speaks to much larger regional issues and the politics of contemporary Nepal vis China and India, to be certain.
Read More5th- 12th December, 2011
8 daylong workshop programme on “Making Efficacious Medicines” was hosted by THE HIMALAYAN AMCHI ASSOCIATION (HAA) at Shechen Monastery in Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal. The HAA was founded in 1998, also supported by Ministry of Health of Nepal and CTEVT.
Dr. Sienna Craig, (Dartmouth College), Calum Blaikie (University of Kent), Barbara Gerke (Humbolt University) and Theresia Hofer (University of Oslo) along with 12-15 Amchis, the Tibetan Doctors from Nepal, Tibet and Ladakh attended the workshop.
Day 1- Amchis shared their training experience, medical practices and expectations from workshop.
Day 2- Ven. Choekling Rinpoche hosted Wang, the medicine empowerment ritual.
Day 3- Discussion on medicines, ingredients and what medicine to make
Day 4-Herb market visit
Day 5-7- Complete pharmacy and medicine making. Blessing medicine.
Day 8 - Closing ceremony and certificate distribution.
Nepal remains the *only* country in the greater South, Central, and East Asian regions where Sowa Rigpa, the Tibetan "Science of Healing", is not officially recognized by the government is significant. Not only is it recognized now by India and of course also by China, but it is part of the national health care system in Bhutan and Mongolia. The place of Nepal in the past, present, and future of this form of indigenous knowledge and healing science is crucial, from many perspectives, and the lack of recognition for Sowa Rigpa in Nepal brings with it many paradoxes.
Nepal remains a major source of raw materials for much of the booming Tibetan medical industry in China (not to mention the Ayurveda industry in India), and yet increasingly strict governance structures and export regulations to China for medicinal plants threatens not only centuries old trade but also contemporary livelihoods and also helps to consolidate economic benefit from the production of industrial Tibetan medicines in China instead of in Nepal. Nepal is a regional leader in efforts at medicinal plant cultivation (even though much more work, energy, and resources are needed on this front). Yet at the same time, Nepal's long lineages of Sowa Rigpa practitioners find themselves often between a "rock and a hard place". They are the caretakers of a type of healing science that requires years of expertise in fields ranging from botany, zoology, and pharmacology to cultural geography and Buddhist philosophy yet they are socially and economically marginalized, which impacts their ability to make good medicines and also to help sustain and transform this tradition in a way that will allow future generations of Nepali practitioners of Sowa Rigpa to thrive, and to continue to treat patients in both urban and rural contexts. In these and other ways, the issue of Sowa Rigpa / Amchi medicine recognition in Nepal speaks to much larger regional issues and the politics of contemporary Nepal vis China and India, to be certain.
