Medical Winter-Tour 2010/11 through the Himalayas
„KHCP on the road“ Healthcare - Education - Interaction
Mouseover to enlarge pictures ! C 2010 Photos by Peter Cerveny
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On the way to Kagyü Mönlam
„Icy runways in Europe“...„Fog in Delhi“ ... „our plane was
unable to land“... „shortly before Dehli and back to
Europe“... „ we are back in Istanbul and on a sightseeing
tour!“ These were the kind of text messages we received from
our medical groups on the first day of the Mönlam in
Bodhgaya. What had been planned for many months – 20 health
care professionals and friends travelling with the KHCP to
set up a medical camp for our 14000 Kagyü friends - literally
dissolved into fog. Only the Swiss section with Maja and
Regula were able to rely on Swiss quality and, thanks to the
flying skills of their Swissair pilot, managed to arrive on
time. Undine, Peter and I are in situ in order to make our preparations. Now it’s down to our improvisation talents and team spirit. Our KIBI students and the monks and nuns from our institutes offered their help. The rest of the team arrives safe and sound with a delay of two days and gets started straight away! |
Medical camp Bodhgaya
In the meantime the 400kg heavy clothes collection from our
friends in Europe arrived and was distributed
immediately. With over 40 supporters the third Mönlam Medical camp became the most successful one. All day long, whilst keeping H.H. Karmapa in sight, we were treating his Rinpoches, monks and nuns, making wishes to bring happiness to all sentient beings (which, by the way, is the meaning of the word Mönlam). Over a period of seven days, under the direction of Matthias, our ENT specialist, we gave out thousands of cough sweets, hundreds of salves for skin infections, bulks of high-quality medication from Europe and hundreds of acupuncture needles which helped ease back pain. |
 
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In the clinic room, under the direction of Anna, thousands of
Tibetan pills find their way to our friends. At the “bar of
glasses” hundreds of glasses from Europe find new owners and
our dentist Regina pull out several suppurated teeth! Our
Physiotherapists ease the pains of nuns, monks and even team
members. When Sharmapa asked us at the end how many people the team treated, we were pleased to tell him about the 4000 treatments. He was very pleased about this! Karmapa thanked us all at a final team meeting, and then we started our return journeys – for some it meant back to Europe, for others to KIBI for studying or to Kathmandu for the next KHCP assignment... |
Training programme Kathmandu 20 hours of travelling by jeep from the Ganges’ plain
through the foothills of the Himalayas to Kathmandu. Our
medical team managed to not only deliver all the medication
safely to our DW centre in Kathmandu, but also deliver a
brand new project of the KHCP! |
 
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Hong Kong
... During our preparations for Karmapa’s visit to Hong Kong
we received an email. Karma Sherab, our young Khenpo from
Kalimpong is informing us of heavy disturbances in the area
of Kalimpong. We know already about Gurka uprisings, but this
time the situation was expected to be dangerous – too
dangerous for our three women to come. Together we decide
that the risk is too high! Susanne, our doctor, spontaneously
decides to come to Hong Kong to help us with our KHCP
information stand during Karmapa’s visit. And the work here was a great success. The first KHCP report in Cantonese is widely read and our friends from Hong Kong support us at our stand, helping them to get a wider image of Karmapa’s social involvement. |
 
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Karmapa, his Rinpoches and lamas deliver a fabulous programme. He gave the initiations of Dzambala and Chenrezig – excellent teachings in front of thousands of people. Large groups from Hong Kong and all over the world are waiting to have interviews with Karmapa. He inaugurates the new Bodhipath and the new DW centre. He releases fish at Hong Kong Bay, he visits the sick in the hospitals of Hong Kong, and gives a big dinner party. Our KHCP team uses this time for networking, conversations and making plans for the future. At the inauguration of Beru Khyentse Rinpoche’s centre, Rinpoche’s Karma Gompa of Bodhgaya is officially welcomed to the KHCP and, of course, receives Tashi the bear! |
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KIBI and new duties The KIBI is now the starting point for the next big medical camp mission in Ladakh. A group of health care professionals made an appointment with us months in advance. We are lucky, Karmapa is there and gives teachings and initiations. Fully empowered, we offer health check-ups to locals and members of the KIBI before heading off to Ladakh. A classroom becomes an examination room. We have plenty of medication anyway, so the room fills up quickly with helpers, chefs and their wives and children. Gratefully, many tell us that they have been working at the KIBI for Karmapa and that they have known him since he was “small”. Everybody finds it great that Karmapa has a healthcare project and we are invited to visit them again. And that’s what we’ll do. At the moment we are planning how the KHCP can be of benefit to the KIBI.   |
    If you travel with the KHCP and help us, like Sebastian, who was not yet a Buddhist, then it is possible that you can take refuge with Karmapa, one-to-one! That’s not the first time in the KHCP! |
Medical camp Ladakh To Ladakh eventually. Our flight departs early in the morning from Delhi, going from 100m above sea level to 3600m above sea level within an hour. The travellers are paediatrician Oliver, specialist in internal medicine Angelika and the Weingärtners from Graz as well as the usual suspects Maja, Regula, Pia and Peter. Our Kagyü monastery suffered from the thunderstorms last year and we remember the floods in Leh where many buildings were destroyed and several thousands of people were killed. Back then we promised to visit in March with a medical camp and, given that our capacities allowed it, to offer medical support to the people of the surrounding areas. Now we are here and Lama Ishey tells us not to move, to just lie down, drink tea and eat biscuits. We were looked after terrifically, but we wanted to get started. Lamala said “No!” – we had to find out first whether we would suffer from altitude sickness and if we would survive at minus 12 degrees Celsius at night without heating but with a sleeping bag and incredibly large piles of blankets. We complied and after we passed the lama’s health examination we were allowed to get started. Children from neighbouring schools were brought to us by their school busses on an hourly basis – lovely children and teenagers, open, curious and, as we found out later, all kagyu buddhists. The 16th Karmapa founded the school during one of his visits to Ladakh! |
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Around 550 people are examined and treated within 5 days and receive lessons in hygiene and health care. During all of this we received the tragic news of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Every night we try to keep up to date with an old TV nearby. Tsultrim Thopden Rinpoche, currently the spiritual leader
of our monastery, noticed our concern about the events in
Japan and invites us to him. He asks us to explain the
situation to him. We share our thoughts, explain the
situation to him and tell him that Karmapa had just sent out
a letter making wishes for the victims. Rinpoche thanks us
and tells us that the friends in Ladakh will do the
same! |
 
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  Medicalcamp during the big Manipuja in Kathmandu and meeting the management of the Manang community * The community supports Sherab Gayltsen Rinpoche´s actions in Swayambhu. |
Medical camp in Kathmandu Together with the Ladakh group we move on to Kathmandu. Apart from a small medical camp in Kirtipur for Shangpa Rinpoche’s nuns, we also planned to set up a large medical camp in Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s Manang Gompa. 5 days, 20 helpers and 3000 potential patients. The resonance is enormous. The beauty is, that all nuns and monks that had only been trained weeks ago, are now able to help us. Confidence increases when you can help others measure their blood pressure etc. Our delight about this increases likewise! The KHCP has made a big step for the future. In the end there is an extra reward. The Manang community makes a large room for a clinic available to the Karmapa Healthcare Project – with a view of the Stupa of Swayambhu! More about this next time. |
The KHCP Tour in numbers:
Come Together |
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Any travel costs are paid privately. This also applies to all helpers. All activities are carried out voluntarily and the full amount of donations is forwarded directly and personally to Karmapa’s monks, nuns and accordingly to KHCP projects in Asia.
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