About us
Yuthog Foundation of Tibetan Medicine is centre for training and education of young Ladakhi people in Tibetan medicine. The objective is the preservation and development of traditional Tibetan medicine and the exchange of experiences to solve problems with respect to use and identification of medicinal plants.
The centre was founded by Amchi Tsewang Smanla in his home village Nurla near Leh, Ladakh (India).
Tsewang Smanla's father was an Amchi and he studied with him and with ven. Trogawa Rinpotche, an incarnate Lama and Tibetan doctor. Also in Ladakh there is a tradition of a father to son lineage in Tibetan medicine.
For several years Amchi Tsewang Smanla was working for
"Save The Children Fund" in
Leh. His job there was especially to train young Amchis in remote
villages of Ladakh.
1997 he has quit the job there, since working conditions got
worse and worse. Especially there is a tremendous lack of funds
now.
The plan to start Yuthog Foundation of Tibetan Medicine came up in the early 90ties. Andreas Neugebauer, a botanist from Germany, helped Tsewang Smanla to organize several excursions to Ladakh designed for western people.
It was always clear to us that these excursions should be of no commercial character but all financial surplus should be for the benefit of Tibetan medicine. Most of the money that was left from these trips was used to build Tsewang Smanla's centre in Nurla. The work is not yet completed, new buildings and an other storey will be added as funds permit us.
Presently Amchi Tsewang has got several students from Ladakh who receive a basic training in Tibetan medicine from him. We are also checking whether there could be western students admitted on a more regular basis, because there are people from the west who would like to go into depth. During our excursion Amchi Tsewang could only teach some very fundamental things and we were especially focussing on medicinal plants.
Amchi Tsewang Smanla
