Barbara Gerke:
What is the relationship between Kalmykia and Tibetan medicine?
Sonan Koldaev:
If you are a Chess fanatic you know where Kalmykia is because we hosted the Chess Tournament for the Olympic Games in 1998. If not, let me place it on the World map. Kalmykia was established by ethnic Mongols in the 17th century, north of the Caspian Sea. Kalmyks are the survivors of the Jungar tribe who were forced to flee into exile when the Manchurians united with the Chinese. The tribe made an agreement with the Russian Government to defend its southern territory form Turkish invasion. Thus, Kalmyks are the last Western Mongols. The word ‘Kalmyk’ can be translated as ‘the people who separated form their own (i.e. Mongolian) people’.
Historically we have practised the Tibetan Buddhist tradition since the time of the Third Dalai Lama (1543-1588), when the Gelugpa school spread Buddhism in Mongolia. At that time our famous armies started protecting the throne of Tibet. While helping to preserve the power of Lhasa’s three great monastic universities, the Mongols began to absorb Tibetan culture along with its religion, philosophy, medicine, astrology and art. Mongolian, Buryat and Kalmyk monks have been studying in Tibetan monasteries since that time. Following their studies, they would then return to serve their people. One of the most famous was the Kalmyk Lama Dambo Ulyanov who translated and published the first Tantra of the Gyushi (Tib. rgyud bzhi) and the first volume of the Vaidurya Ngonpo (Tib. baidurya sngon po) into Russian at the beginning of this century.(1)
Tragically, all accumulated experiences of our Lama doctors were destroyed during the 1917 Russian Revolution. The libraries and archives were burnt, the monasteries destroyed, and everyone who represented our traditional culture was executed. Then, in 1943, the entire Kalmyk population was deported by cattle trucks to Siberia at a few hours notice. Without shelter, without food, the entire nation was flung out of trains to survive somehow in the wilds of freezing Siberia. More than half of our population perished during that time, mostly the old and the very young.
It was not until 1957, after Stalin’s death, that the Kalmyks were allowed to return to southern Russia. Those who have survived until today still fear that this tragedy might happen again; that at any moment, their children and grand-children might be subjected so similar suffering.
BG: In Russia, you studied allopathic medicine. Now you are a qualified Tibetan doctor. Tell us about this shift in your life.
SK: In 1992, just after the end of the USSR, the Russian Federation gave more democratic freedom to all the nationalities living in Russia. We regained the right to practise our religion and restore our culture, which had been wiped out after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
So, in 1992 our Kalmyk Government went into an agreement with the Tibetan Government in Exile for 25 Kalmyk students to enroll in various Tibetan institutions in India. The subjects chosen were religion, philosophy, medicine, astrology and thanka painting, etc. That is how my internship as an allopathic doctor came to a sudden end, and I found myself in Dharamsala, north-west India, studying Tibetan medicine at the Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute (TMAI).
My first year in Dharamsala was taken up with Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy classes. Without understanding something about the religion, the logic of Tibetan medicine would have been even more alien to my Communist brain. I studied at TMAI from March 1992 till March 1998.
I must confess that when my mother put my name in the golden urn to select students to go to India - and my name was among those selected - I felt like a Siberian bear with a sore head. Today I’d like to thank her, for she saw the future when I did not. But now, I also see the future reflected in the eyes of our patients. And they are full of hope.
BG: How is Tibetan medical knowledge passed on at the end of the 20th century?
SK: In much the same way as it has been taught for 2,000 years it seems. The curriculum comprises five years theoretical and one year practical training. During those first five years the students prepare theoretically, mostly studying and memorising the Gyushi by heart. The Gyushi is the main text book of Tibetan medicine which is composed poetically.
The medical meaning is deeply hidden in the 5,900 verses. In the mornings, the first four hours in class are mainly spent with the teacher explaining the meaning of each verse, line by line, and then the whole sense of the verses. In the afternoon, grammar and science classes are held. The rest of the day is spent in solitary study and memorisation of the Gyushi. Before beginning studies in the morning and before going to sleep in the evenings, all students gather for prayers. On Saturdays, they usually assist in preparing medicines in the pharmacy, studying the Tibetan pharmacopoeia. Every August, the school migrates up into the Himalayas to an altitude of approx. 3500 metres. above sea level. There students collect, study and identify medicinal plants, herbs and barks. Each year ends with written and oral examinations. During the sixth year, students are sent out to the various branch clinics of TMAI in India, Nepal and now also Bhutan. This exposure to working with senior, experienced doctors is very valuable. This is a very simple and encapsulated explanation of how Tibetan physicians are trained. To be an effective doctor in this tradition takes hard work and concentration. Every day, every hour, every minute is taken in this, and perhaps the next life too (if you believe in rebirth), because Tibetan medicine is a science, an art and a philosophy, and it demands sacrifices from its practitioners.
BG: Was it difficult for you to change from your allopathic perception to a holistic view of medicine?
SK: I was not always so convinced about Tibetan medicine. Looking back, I can see, that my allopathic studies were very standardised and predictable in comparison with Tibetan medical studies. One studied simply to get experience, like swimming with the tide. Studying Tibetan medicine was a whole new approach towards everything human - physiology, psychology, spirituality, identity. I learnt to look at the human body with new eyes. Now, when I think about the nature of a disease, I think my perception is more close to Tibetan pathology than to Western medical views.
Of course, these two sciences are not contradictory. The idea of the three humours in Tibetan medicine is closely related to the Hippocratic theory. Hippocrates also taught that there must be balance for health. He also knew the importance of diet and behaviour. I think he would have approved of the Tibetan approach of finding and curing the root of the disease rather than treating only the manifestation. I am reminded of this every day, now, as I am back home in Elista, our capital, running my own clinic.
From my first year at TMAI, I decided that the reason for acquiring Tibetan medical qualifications, in addition to my allopathic training, was to take the rational part from both medical traditions and use the most effective elements in my practice. For this reason, I chose to spent three months for a practical internship at Lhasa Men-Tsee-Khang, a three-storied polyclinic associated with Tu Yan Bu traditional hospital. There, they use Western allopathic as well as Tibetan investigations, but treat only with Tibetan medicine. This is my aim, too.
BG: What were your first experiences opening a Tibetan Clinic in Kalmykia?
SK: The Centre of Tibetan Medicine opened in Elista in July 1998. The premises is shared with a small Buddhist temple. After 81 years, pulse diagnosis and Tibetan medicine were available again in Kalmykia. The first enthusiastic wave of patients were grandmas and grandpas who still have memories of our culture. They are all survivors of 14 years of exile in Siberia. Terrible living conditions, poor diet, fear and constant nervous tension have taken their toll in old age with over 80% suffering serious heart problems, hyper-tension and crippling rheumatism from a childhood spent in broken shoes without socks.
Whenever we investigate the history of illness the patient slowly traces it back to the cruel years in Siberia. The stories are agonising and consultations are tearful.
During the first two months of the Centre’s opening, around 2000 patients with a wide variety of diseases came to consult Dr. Sonam Wangdu Changbhar who had come from Calcutta, India, to assist the establishment of the clinic. Some queued from 4 am and we still had patients at 10 PM, seven days a week. The need for this clinic has been certainly established. The most interesting cases are now under research control and their histories are recorded, periodic laboratory tests carried out and modern instrumental investigations used.
BG: What is the response of the modern population of Kalmykia to Tibetan medicine?
SK: Establishing the Centre of Tibetan Medicine at Elista has proven beyond expectations that there is enormous interest in our traditional medicine in the Republic. Firstly, it is part of the heritage that was taken from us. It is a happy rediscovery of our cultural roots.
Secondly, a high percentage of our patients are tired of shuttling from one clinic to another without results. They are very concerned about the side-effects of modern medicine. Another group of patients are already beyond the scope of modern medicine.
BG: What has been the effect of your treatments so far?
SK: With the mild, slow and gentle way Tibetan medicine works, it is obviously too early for me to state any conclusions about treatments so far. Although, we have already recorded remarkable results in cases of bed-wetting, migraine and hepatitis B. We also have seen its effectiveness against soft Tibetan hay-fever (our Republic is largely steppe land with flowering grasses), fertility problems, chronic constipation and depression. Apart from the positive results from Tibetan natural treatment, we found that patients liked the warm and personal attention and the individual approach to treatment.
From these small, but hectic beginnings, Tibetan medicine is once again taking roots in Kalmykia.
BG: Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
(1) Ulyanov, Dambo. Interlinear [verbatim] Translation of the First Part of the Tibetan Medicine “rtza ba’i rgyud”. [The Philosophical-theological-medical-Encyclopaedia] (Russian) vi, 7-75 p., 1 plate. St. Petersburg 1901. In 1903 Ulyanov published the Russian translation of the first part of Vaidurya Ngonpo, entitled: “Tibetan Medicine, Part I (rtza ba’i rgyud) or Mallika (“The Rosary from the Blue Lapis Lazuli”), which explains the four divisions, adorned with the name sman bla (Medicine Buddha) of the commentator Sangye Gyatso (sangs gyas rgya mtso)”. [The Philosophical-theological-medical-Encyclopaedia] (Russian), St. Petersburg 1903, 86p. (Aschoff, 1996, 388) (ed.)
Dr. Sonan Koldaev
Apt 29, 1A Partizanskaya Street
Elista, Kalmykia 358000
Russia
e-mail: doctorK at elista.rospac.ru
phones: (res.): (007) 84722 - 26281 (off.): 62257
fax: (007)- 84722- 27779
