Amchi Conference

I attended a conference today at Martin Chautari on Tibetan Medicine and healers. 4 Tibetan Medicine scholars led it;

Dr. Sienna Craig, Dartmouth College

Calum Blaikie, University of Kent

Barbara Gerke, Humbolt University

Theresia Hofer, University of Oslo.

They came to Nepal as THE HIMALAYAN AMCHI ASSOCIATION, which was founded in 1998. Also partly supported by Ministry of Health and CTEVT.

It was 8 daylong workshop programme on “Making Efficacious Medicines”. Amchis (Tibetan medical doctors) from various parts of Nepal, India and Tibet participated and shared their experience. Educated one another about their recipe of medicines, so and so forth. Unfortunately I did not get chance to participate in the workshop but I attended last day talk at Martin Chautari.

Dr. Sienna, Calum, Barabara and Theresia took their turn and explained about the situation of Tibetan Medicines and amchis in Nepal, China, Tibet and India.

Here are the few interesting points that I found interesting and jotted down as notes:

- I always had misconception that Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine were same.

-To become an Amchi, one has to excel in botany, geography, geology, chemistry, trading (sell them), and also at the end in teaching.

Botany- to identify the plants/herbs

Geography/Geology- to understand what plants grow at which climate or palces

Chemistry: Knowledge of proportion of several herbs to make medicine.

Trading: right skill to sell the medicines

Teaching: Teach medical studies to the generation next.

-According to Amchis, their laboratory is their tongue. They taste to test the quality and efficacy of the ingredients.

-Amchis are constantly working on finding substitutions for the must-ingredients from endangered animals like rhino horn, tiger paw, elephant gallbladder etc. And same goes for the endangered plants too. Meanwhile, lots of fake ingredients are also in market to influence. For eg: vendor rub sandal wood on normal wood and sell it as sandal wood.

-Amchis in India, China and Tibet no more medicines on their own. Factories do their job. This is one of the demerits, due to the institutionalization after their government recognized/certified the Tibetan medicine and its practice.

-Tibetan Medical Hospitals in China and Tibet are blooming in comparison to Nepal, where Tibetan Medical practice is still to be recognized and certified by Government. Hospitals there receive 300 patients everyday. Their factories produce 100 different types of medicines everyday. But there is no practice of cultivation of herbs for future. Consequently, these herbs will extinct in next 20 years.

-Bulk (70%) of the Tibetan medicine ingredients are exported from Nepal, and rest 30% from other parts of the world (Tibet, India, China).

-Nepal Gov doesn’t even know the term “Amchi”, although the practice has existed in Nepal for 1000 years. Due to the dialect problem Amchis of rural areas of Nepal are not organized or institutionalized and still are individuals. Somehow, Amchis from all over Nepal need to come together as a team. They have to work and understand one another and voice their way to get approval from Government.

For that, Amchis at least need to make medicines and prove that they scientifically and practically will cure certain chronic disease.

Also delineate merits of Tibetan medicine v/s western medicine.

-Does one need to be Buddhist to practice Tibetan Medical Science, because Rimpoches (Buddhist masters) empower every medicine before distribution? The empowerment ritual is called Wong.

-What role does empowerment play in medicine? Do Tibetan medicines need mandatory empowerment? Does the process increase the value of Tibetan medicine or is it ok just to use them without empowering?

-According to SOWA RIGPA; medical science should be separated from religion.

-According to Amchis in Lhasa: One doesn’t have to be monk to practice Tibetan medical science. HH Dalai Lama supports it too.

As a sum up, it was wonderful experience to participate in the conference. I learnt many things besides just knowing how to spell amchi.

Other thing that fascinated me was the questions from Anthropology students. Sienna and team were really mesmerized at the participation and interest.

From my past experience at various conferences, the question-answer round was really funny in a bad way, because there, journalist never failed to make fool out of themselves with the kind of questions they ask.

Filming again

Today I had to go film Kristina, my cousin sister, at Kathmandu Durbar Square.

She wore a red Nepali dress with yellow patuki (sash), Priti applied beautiful make-up on her. She was looking so pretty, like any Barbie doll.

We filmed her at Kaal Bhairav, on rickshaw, feeding pigeon at the square etc. And wherever we went, she would soon be surrounded by tourist to take her picture. To photograph and film themselves with her. Everyone turned to me to praise her, her patience and her enigma. They almost took them home.

Although she was very enthusiastic about she coming into camera, she was kind of going out track. There was a point when I started losing my temper because she was not following what I was saying. Then again I realized, bichara, she is giving her best, without any homework. Haha.

Her father (my uncle) knew how to handle her better. She is his daughter after all. So, he did a dance-walk to show how she should be performing for my camera. How she should laugh. How she should not stop when the camera is still rolling. So on and so forth. I wish I too had that in my mind.

It was a nice 2 hour shoot.

I really have to develop my skill when it comes to being patient with others.

One Day on Earth..11.11.11

It was early morning of 11.11.11. The very first morning in Biratnagar. Priti and I were picked up at 7:30 from the Swagatam hotel to go on filming trip for UNDP. It was nice warm November morning, unlike a Kathmandu one. Latif and Guna tagged along with us from UNDP office out there. Latif is head of UNIRP and Guna, ex-water system engineer, now works under Latif on various projects.
Wonderful road, empty road, no traffic jams like in Kathmandu, and speed of 80 kilometer per hour. Most prominent trespassers were bicycles, rickshaw-wallas, and tractors. It was rare and for-a-change kind of view for us.
UNDP hired us for “One Day on Earth Project , 11.11.11.”. This year’s theme was to film ex-combatants who are being supported by United Nations Interagency Rehabilitation Programme (UNIRP) to reestablish their life as civilians after being forced to leave Maoist Military camp. It is one of the missions headed under UNDP and under it, ex-combatants receive training like tailoring, cooking, or certain amount to open a retail shop, depending upon the interest and capability of the individual. 4008 combatants expelled from camp in 2010, fall under VMLR (Verified Minors and Late Recruits).
The day earlier, we went to UNIRP office to meet Latif and his team for next day’s project. This was my first encounter with everyone and even the notion of the project that I was going to film on 11.11.11. Everyone started to explain what they do. Related and unrelated, both. They kept using unfamiliar words/works they do for UNIRP. So, more than half of the things were flying over my head, due to delayed flight and hunger as well. At the end, or also I would rather say, at the 11th hour, I received handful of reading material. We had to check in hotel, read all those papers and prepare question and rush to field very early morning! Wallah!! What a fab job!! Thank you UNDP for not giving me all these materials in prior for study, although I kept asking about it for weeks. They also warned that the ex-combatants we meet might go aggressive if asked sensitive questions. That is what we had to keep in mind while compiling questions.
Our first destination was Ramganj, Sunsari. A remote village of Musars. They are rat-eaters, or musa-eaters as we say in Nepali, hence termed Musars. A simple villagers, who work at somebody else’ land all day, to meet their two meals a day need. Interviewed a boy who owned a retail shop. He received financial help of 40,000 from UNIRP. He said he was doing well and his father seems to be happier with the support he received. Priti gelled very well with Tharu women and kids. She spoke to them in Hindi while they kept replying in Maithili. It was pretty hilarious situation. If Latif had to explain the situation he would say, “It was pretty hilarious Priti.” He immediately got fond of our names, Nikki-Priti. He used word “pretty” to describe every situation just to tease Priti.
After an hour of filming, we went to the Training center near Itahari. That too went good. We stopped by Gorkhali Departments for lunch. It was only famous store in Itahari. Not just for Itaharians, but also for its neighbor districts like Dharan, Biratnagar, and Inaruwa. Clean and healthy ambiance, grocery store, ice cream parlor, nice food court, etc. There Latif asked our drive to take photos of him, Priti and me together. He asked us to stand on either side. C’mon!! How would 4 feet 9 inches tall girls look on either side of 6 feet Afgan man? Not to forget bulky too. Photo looked pretty hilarious and odd.
Third destination was another remote place called Dangighat. It is on the way to Jhapa pass Khursane from Itahari. We interviewed a very polite mother of two kids. I think she was as young as 22. Her husband is still in camp as combatant in Bharatpur. She received 7 weeks tailoring training from UNIRP. And now she has one-man tailor shop of her own at her bamboo house.
In route to different destination, we would talk about several issues that these ex-combatants had faced after they were expelled. They were promised a fairy tale life by whoever, which of course never came true. But yet their hopes for it are still alive.
Latif never missed a chance to flaunt his new Ipad. Sometimes to check mail, to take our photos and once in a while to interview us and himself. We recorded a nice video on it. Hopefully he will send us the photos and videos when he returns from Nepalgunj next week.
Finally, we went to Inaruwa, to catch a last interview with a young cook, one of the VM (Verified Minors). He was quite interesting and confident. He was recruited by best hotels in Biratnagar and Morang immediately on completion of training. Even his recent owner confirmed, his business rose after this boy took command in his kitchen. He had tons of stories to share and my camera battery was dying. Bummer.
I had checked out of hotel morning so that I could stay with Nikki Chaudhary’s family after that shoot. We all came back to our respective places. Refreshed. Relaxed. Had dinner. Then I downloaded all the films on my computer. I reviewed them in tit-a-bit and started panicking. Priti freaked out. We had some major problems in filming. Darn, I am so dead. I immediately called Latif in middle of his dinner. I told him I had this stupid problem and I need to re-shoot all of them. Tomorrow, I need to do it Tomorrow. He asked to come see him next morning. I was too impatient and worried. I rang him again and asked if I could go see him right then. In 10 minutes, I was there. He could immediately figure out I was worried. And worried beyond extent. I showed him footages on my camera. I thought I would outburst. But he was quite, calm and experienced guy. He has gone through all kind of problems, he said. He told me stories on the worst thing has happened to him and he managed to come out of them with cool head. And he would take care of everything and easily get permission if I had to reshoot. Also, I could cry or scream then and there, to tone down my panic. I went back home with all his kind words and console.
Priti was tired and asleep. I couldn’t sleep, so, I turned on computer watched all the footages. And as I kept watching my mood started lifting up. Because I saw less and less flaw. At the end of the footage, I knew only the first part, the Ramganj one, had problem. I texted Latif late night explaining the situation, and went to bed happily. I carefully ran my fingers into Priti’s hair and said, everything is all right, we have done our best. Of course she didn’t hear that because she was under sound sleep. Inside my mind, I planned few things on how to start movies and what the flow should be.
Saturday, we went on tour to Dharan with Nitesh and aunty. It was a pleasure to see the places, where we had never been to.
And I am back home today, after quick re-shoot at Ramganj.