The origin of traditional Tibetan medicine has its roots in the Bönpo tradition, and its birth is documented about the VIIth century. Medicine is one of the most precious and distinctive aspects Himalayan culture, and the “science of healing or of long life”, as it is called by the Tibetans, is considered one of the major traditions, and was one of the essential disciplines taught in the great monastic universities.
At Kathmandu there is a monastery, the Bönpo Triten Norbutse Monastery, founded with the aim to safeguard Tibetan Bönpo culture and knowledge outside Tibet. As well as following Tibetan language and traditional medicine courses, the students also study the English and Nepalese languages and western medicine, in order to obtain a wide background to be able to spread and practice Bönpo/Himalayan medicine in different situations.
Since the course lasts ten years, to increase the number of students Bönpo Triten Norbutse Monastery has decided to reconstitute the first and only school of traditional medicine in a hilly area, in the outskirts of Kathmandu. ASIA will assist in the terracing of the area where the school is going to be built, in the construction of dormitories (156,60 sq. mt), and of the kitchen and canteen (90 sq. mt).