Medical Institute in Nepal

Medical School for Traditional Tibetan Medicine in the Bönpo's Bumshi Medicinal systems.

The construction of a medical teaching institute outside Kathmandu, also a training project for jobless youth is being co-sponsored by the German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), by BILD Hilft e.V. and Ein Herz für Kinder e.V. (both charities from Germany). The construction of the institute building was completed in summertime 2009.

Facilities of the laboratory, office and kitchen are co-sponsored by the Deutschen Umwelthilfe e.V. and Rapunzel Naturkost AG from resources of the HAND IN HAND-Fonds.

Since 2009, the school trains young women and men to work as qualified health professionals and doctors of Tibetan medicine. The training as qualified health professionals takes 5 years, the training as a doctor of Tibetan medicine takes 9 years.

Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche inaugurated the foundation of the Kathmandu medical school. He is one of the most senior and respected living teachers of the Tibetan Yungdrung Bon. The construction and furnishing of the school is a joint project between Bonpo Foundation/Kathmandu und der Yungdrung Bön Stiftung. In order to finance the running costs and further investments, we need your contributions.

The Tibetan medical system is based on the Medicine Tantra System (consisting of four Medicine Tantras).

The Bon Bumshi Medicine system is recognised by the Tibetan Minister of Health in Dharamsala to be one of the two Tibetan medical systems. Many early and contemporary specialists of Tibetan medicine consider the Bon Bumshi medical system to be the original source of the whole Tibetan medical system.

TeamKathmandu medical school is the first medical school outside Tibet to teach the complete Bon Bumshi medical system and in this way will maintain and preserve this unique medical tradition.

The curriculum is initially addressing young people from remote alpine regions of Nepal where supply is totally lacking, where the population has a Tibetan background and the cultural and spiritual tradition of Yungdrung Bon is still alive. These are mainly Dhorpatan, Dolpo and Mustang. After completing the training, part of the graduates should return there.

In addition the training program is open to all interested in the medical school, especially young exile Tibetans and young Nepalese sharing an interest in Tibetan culture and healing arts. The school is meant to offer these young people a vocational perspective. In the medium-term the school will assist in improving the health services for the population in the remote mountain regions of Nepal.

The school wishes to be an institution which preserves the effective, traditional Bon health care methods and to contribute in maintaining a crucially important aspect of Tibetan culture in its oldest and most original form, namely Bon Bumshi medicine.

In future the intent is to have an exchange with medical doctors and specialists of western cultures and to find a way for the two medical traditions to enrich each other. Such a dialogue between Tibetan and western Medicines will contribute to the research of the effectiveness of Traditional Tibetan Medicine.