Nepal’s traditional healers vow to preserve ‘secret and sacred’ indigenous knowledge even as climate change bites

Climate change and a dwindling number of practitioners pose a threat to the Sowa Rigpa system of medicine that dates back to more than 2,500 years

The number of practitioners in Nepal, where Sowa Rigpa is not formally recognised, is falling amid limited educational pathways and legal recognition challenges

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An exterior view of Amchi Tsewang Gyurme Gurung’s clinic in Jomsom. While Sowa Rigpa is an ancient practice, it is now facing an existential crisis in Nepal with only about 200 amchi still practising in the country. Photo: Alok Thapa

Bibek Bhandari

Published: 12:00pm, 4 Apr 2024

When a patient visits Tsewang Gyurme Gurung’s clinic, he reaches for their wrist first.

His eyes are closed and his fingers move slowly as if he is shifting guitar chords, while examining for a pulse.

Gurung, a traditional healer in Nepal’s northern district of Mustang, is making a diagnosis. Known as an amchi, he practices the traditional Sowa Rigpa system of medicine, which is based on Buddhist philosophies dating back to more than 2,500 years.

“When we do the pulse reading, we will be watching the frequency and amplitude of vital organs to find out if there are any imbalances,” Gurung explains. “The fingers are our tools, they’re the scanner to the body. Pulses are the messenger to the amchi from that body.”

Amchi Tsewang Gyurme Gurung in his clinic. He has been practising the Sowa Rigpa system of medicine since his childhood. Photo Alok Thapa

The ancient practice of Sowa Rigpa is facing an existential crisis in Nepal. There are only about 200 amchi still practising in the country, according to the Sowa Rigpa Association, their numbers dwindling due to limited educational pathways and legal recognition challenges.