Keyzom Bhutti is a doctor of Tibetan medicine who opened a practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in July 1998, together with Eric Jacobson, a medical anthropologist of Harvard University, who specialised in Tibetan Medicine and has 25 years of experience as a psychotherapist and bodyworker, and Regina Pellicano, a student of Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Practice with a background in the study of Tibetan Medicine. The complete interview first appeared in “Spirit of Change”, published in January/February 1999,  Grafton, Massachusetts. Excerpts are re-printed here:

 Barbara Gerke: Many people in the West are very interested in Tibet, so maybe they   would like to hear a little about your life, - how you were born in Tibet and how you   came to India.

Keyzom Bhutti: I was born in 1951 in Tibet, in Chinese Tibet. We lived in the east of Tibet, the Sakya region. My family did farming, and my father was the head of the district. He was very smart and cared for the people - he took care of their welfare. I also had an uncle who was very important. He served directly under the Sakya Trizin, who is head of the Sakya order. My uncle was his secretary.
 
BG:  How old were you when you first came to India?

KB:  I was eight. With my father and mother, my younger sister and older brother, we all fled to India in 1959. Right away I went to Central School for Tibetans in Darjeeling. I continued up to the 10th year, then I applied for the College of Tibetan Medicine in Dharamsala, and was accepted.  I thought it would be good to serve people who are suffering from illnesses.

BG:  What was the system for training the doctors at the College of   Medicine?

KB:  At the medical college I spent eight years altogether - five years in classes and three years in practical training. These days, I think, they have reduced the number of years’ training to a total of only six years.
 
BG:  In your training you learnt not only how to practise the medicine, but also how to make the medicine...

KB:  Yes, at the College I also learnt how to make and prepare medicine. Tibetan doctors must know how to make the medicines - when to pick up the herbs, how to prepare them, how to mix them - everything we must know. I worked in the College pharmacy for three years. In the morning I went to practise with an experienced doctor, and in the afternoon I went to the pharmacy to learn how to prepare the medicine.

 Every year for one month we went to the mountains to learn how to recognise and gather the plants. We went to the Himalayas, to parts of Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, Kulu-Manali - also to places in the mountains closer to our college at Dharamsala.

BG:  When you went to the Medical College, who paid your expenses?

KB:  His Holiness the Dalai Lama  paid for my expenses for three years. After that the College found a sponsor for me from abroad.

BG:  I understand you were in the very first batch to graduate from the College of Medicine?

KB:  Yes I was in the first batch. In a class of six we were three girls, the rest were boys. When we started there were fifteen of us. However, to study Tibetan medicine one needs special karma. Some of the students got sick due to the rough conditions in those days. Some got so sick they couldn’t attend the classes, so they couldn’t continue. Others became mentally disturbed due to studying the texts too hard, and some had accidents. Finally, out of fifteen only six of us graduated.

 At that time, life was very difficult.  Following 1959, we refugees did not have a proper diet. We had many other difficulties, so many couldn’t continue to study. We had only one house.  We all studied in the same room and we slept in the next room. We lived in just two rooms like that - one was for sleeping and one was for classes. Then we also had a kitchen. Now the College has a proper hostel, and every facility is there. The students are given everything they need. It’s much easier these days. But previously we faced many difficulties.

BG:  Who was your most important teacher for Tibetan Medicine?

KB:  My best teacher in everything was my guru Pema Wangyal. He was a very learned person, a scholar. He knew astrology, he knew medicine, he knew how to prepare gold for use in some powdered medicines, he knew so many things.
 
BG:  How did it come about that you returned to Darjeeling to practise medicine there?

KB:  After I graduated from the College the head of the Department of Health [of the Tibetan government-in-exile] selected me to open a clinic in Darjeeling. At that time there was no Tibetan medicine at all in Darjeeling, but there were many Tibetan refugees there.  So I set up that clinic and worked there for 25 years.

BG:  When you first started that clinic in Darjeeling, was it very difficult?

KB:  Yes, of course, because I was the only Tibetan doctor there. Also it was very difficult to get a licence to open the clinic, even though I had a degree from the Tibetan Medical College.  The local people, the Indians and Nepalese and even the Tibetans, didn’t know anything about Tibetan medicine. So at first it was very difficult to get patients, because the people just didn’t know anything about it.  After a while, however, I was seeing fifty to sixty patients a day.

BG:  How was it that you came to the U.S.?

KB:  Primarily, because the United States government was so kind to the Tibetan people - they gave an opportunity for 1,000 Tibetans to come and stay here, to immigrate.  So my husband was one of those selected to come.  But each family was given only one visa.  So he came first, six years before me. This year I and our two children came and joined him here. Now we are very happy to be together again!

BG: What are the main differences between medicine in the U.S. and India?

KB:  Here the patients are so serious! They are very careful with the supplements. In India, whatever medicine we gave to the patients they would just take it without noticing anything about the effects. They have complete faith in the doctors; whatever the doctor says, they will obey. They are very happy to get the doctor’s advice, and they never complain.  But here, the patients look for the action of each of the pills. Here, the patients are just as powerful as the doctors, and the doctor has to be very careful how to treat them.

BG:  What about life in general here in the U.S.?  What is it like for you?

KB:  This is a very busy life for me. Sometimes I would like to stay in a very calm place, but my mind never keeps calm and quiet, whenever I look outside at all the things people are doing it makes me so busy in my mind. I find the people as well as the atmosphere so very busy, that I cannot be very quiet within myself.

BG:  What is the thing you like most about the US?

KB:  I like the sanitation and the cleanliness. Everywhere the facilities are very good. Everybody has a right to speak what they want.  You know  - freedom  - I like it!

BG:  Do you think that as more Emchis [a Mongolian term for Tibetan doctors, now widely used] come to the U.S. and start seeing American patients, that they’ll have to change their practice in any way? Is there some way they’ll have to change how they practise Tibetan medicine for the American patients? For instance, do you think the actual supplements have to be changed?

KB:  The same supplements are okay to use here, but the way of life as everything else is very different from India, so there will have to be some changes.

BG:  What do you think about the problem of getting the supplements? Lately it has been very difficult to get Tibetan medicines even in India.

KB:  These days more and more doctors are making them in India. People in the United States are looking for alternative medicine, and we are getting very good results.  But the supplements are difficult to get. We can’t get from the College of Tibetan Medicine  because they have to give so much to so many of their doctors and clinics, but in India many doctors said they are going to begin making the medicines on their own. Then in the future I think we’ll get the supplements without any difficulty.

BG:  And what about the problem that the raw herbs are very hard to find now? It is said that some of the herbs are almost becoming extinct.

KB:  Now the College of Tibetan Medicine is looking for land to start herb farms. They are sending representatives to look for land in different parts of the Himalayas - different plants need different heights, temperature and rain - to plant the medicines.

BG: Almost all the Emchis are Tibetans, Mongolians or Buryats. Do you think it is possible for Westerners to learn Tibetan medicine?

KB:   I think it’s very difficult for Westerners to learn Tibetan medicine until they learn the Tibetan language. Once they learn to read the Tibetan texts and how to speak the language, then they can get a good background in Tibetan medicine, then they can learn easily. Tibetans take a five year course in the Medical College. So on top of that, how much longer will it take the Western students to learn the Tibetan language? But it’s necessary, because the medicine text [the Four Tantras] is not like an ordinary textbook, it is very deep and like an ocean. And you have to learn everything in detail.  It’s not a very easy task.

BG:  How many different kinds of supplements do you use?

KB:  At the College of Tibetan Medicine they used to make one hundred and fifty-five different compounds. Here I have about twenty-five different kinds right now, and I am hoping to get more from India. So we use different ones according to the imbalance of the person.

BG:  What do you hope for your future here in the United States? What would like five years from now what kind of life do you want to have?

KB:   I want to practise my medicine. I want to contribute my knowledge to the United States. I would like to help people who are looking for alternative medicine. I’m looking for the patients who cannot find any effective medicine, and I hope I can serve them.  I want to work all my life like this.

BG:  Thank you  for sharing this interview.
 

Dr. Keyzom Bhutti
Tibetan Health Consultants, LLC,
335 Broadway, Cambridge
Massachusetts
USA
phone:  1-888-543-2888
e-mail:  ejcbsn at aol.com