Bhutan Cultural Atlas » Traditional Healing & Practices

Lhapa

passang — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:19:07 +0000

Article in progress.

Bonpo

passang — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:00:50 +0000

Bonpo: Men who deal with certain classes of minor local spirits who harm people. They do not go into trance but recite specific prayers. There is one bonpo in Bumthang

Jankhri

passang — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:00:38 +0000

Jankhri are usually mediums for the people of Nepali descent. Although they are originally associated with the Tamangs ethnic group, in Bhutan the word designates any medium used by the people of Nepali descent to diagnose and cure illnesses.
Traditionally, there was no jankhri in Bumthang.

Local Doctor in Chhume

passang — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:03:17 +0000

My name is Yeshi Dorji. I am from Urok. I am 55 years old and I have 2 sons and one lovely daughter in law. I just got a grand child who is 24 days old. I am a farmer and a cow herder.

Since 25 years I have been doing healing practices for both animals and people from the Urok community.

I have no formal training as such. I learned these practices by myself.

My specialty is to treat join dislocation, twisted nerves in all part of the body especially hands and legs of both animals and humans.

For humans I do it be feeling the area affected, and repositionning the dislocation or the twisted nerve. Nowaday I use plaster.

For animals, I learned through cutting the affected area of several dead animals. I was also frequently asked by Jakar hospital to work for them for the human treatment, but I refuse because I have no interest to work in the hospital. Specially for treating join dislocation, I feel the local healers are better than modern healer.

So far I have been treating more than hundred human patients and 200 animals. My sons are not interested in this practice, but I have one friend to whom I can pass my experience and knowledge. I hope in the future he will become a traditional healer treating the problem.

Terdag

passang — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:00:48 +0000

Close to the Tibetan oracles, these are men who wear a spectacular costume and diagnose problems and propose remedies through long trances. They are possessed by powerful local deities and are associated with the North-East region of Lhuntshe.

Pawo

passang — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:58:00 +0000

Pawo are men who are mediums and get possessed by a local deity. Their role is to diagnose problems and illnesses which they are supposed to cure through different prayers and rituals. There are pawos on Bumthang.

Pamo

passang — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:55:40 +0000

Pamo are in fact very close to nyeljoms and are spread throughout central and eastern Bhutan. They are also female mediums and are possessed by local deities. Their role is to diagnose and cure illness through different prayers and rituals.

Nyeljom

passang — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:52:40 +0000

Nyeljom are women who are mediums and become possessed by a local deity. Their role is to diagnose and cure illness through different prayers and rituals. They are associated with the Western region of Bhutan and therefore there is no nyeljom in Bumthang.

Traditional Healing and Practices in Bhutan

passang — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:11:42 +0000

In Bhutan, traditional healers have different names pawo, pamo, terdag, nyeljom, lhapa, jankhri, bonpo, but all are comparable to mediums and shamans.
They belong to the Himalayan and Inner Asian general context of healing practices prevalent from Ladakh to Mongolia, from Tibet to Nepal and Sikkim.
Performing special ceremonies on the patient to diagnose and remove sickness, they play an important psychological and curative role in a rural society where the supernatural is part of life.

Bhutanese believe that diseases are due to an imbalance in the different “channels” which compose the body and that they are often caused by one of the numerous revengeful spirits which are associated to certain symptoms.
It is therefore necessary to find out which spirit is upset with the patient and then provide a cure for the patient as well as apease the spirit.

Besides the traditional healers, rmonks or lay religious practitioners, are called, if they are available, to perform specific rituals for the patient in order to remove obstacles and impurities which cause the sickness.

Most of the government hospitals in Bhutan have an indigenous medicine unit which relies on a holistic view of the body and treats with plants, as well as acupuncture.
The indigenous doctors go through a five-year rigorous academic training in a government college established in Thimphu.

All these healers are not exclusive of each other, and people can use one or the other according to the urgency and proximity.