I
had a most wonderful visit to the TibetanAid Foundation's
project in the ChaZhu Valley in Tibet August 2-14, 2005.
I flew from Los Angeles (16 hours of flying) to Beijing
with a one night layover in Beijing and then on to Xining
the capital city of Qinghai Province of the Peoples
Republic of China. Both Qinghai and the TAR are on the
Tibetan plateau whose valleys are at 12,000 feet with
multiple mountain ranges 20-28,000 feet in elevation.
Amdo is the birthplace of the current H.H. the Forteenth
Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and of Tsongkapa, the founder
of the Gelupa or Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
When
I arrived at the airport in Xining, I was met by DanZhen
Tsering who took me on a 4 hour car ride to Hualong,
a town 30 kilometers from the ChaZhu Valley. The drive
was exquisite with glorious vistas of grass-covered
mountains and valleys with sheep, horses, cows and yak
grazing on the slopes. Since this area is the eastern
edge of the Tibetan plateau, the elevation is lower:
9000 feet in the valleys with 11-14,000 foot mountains.
Traveling between Xining and Hualong, we went over two
11,000 foot passes. We also went through two police
checkpoints and I was very interested to see that I
was never asked for my passport or my purpose for traveling
to this remote area.
When
we arrived in Hualong, DhanZhen took us to his very
modern apartment with sparkling white floors and a flush
toilet. This is very different from the Tibet I experienced
in 1986 when I traveled overland from Kathmandu to Lhasa.
Hualong is a modern t
own
with a hospital, bank, cell-phone company, mosque, and
Tibetan Medicine College. It is populated by mainly
Muslim and Han Chinese people. The ethnic Tibetan people
are inclined to stay in their villages and high pastures
tending their fields and flocks as they have done for
centuries. DhanZhen's wife is a school teacher in the
town of Hualong and he is a local government employee
involved in the county government of the valley adjacent
to the ChaZhu Valley, his birthplace. We spent the night
in DhanZhen's apartment because rains had turned the
unpaved road between Hualong and the ChaZhu Valley into
a slippery mud quagmire.
The
next day the sun came out and by midday DhanZhen felt
the road was passable. The drive turned into a roller-coaster
of emotion as I ooed and aahed over the beauty of the
countryside and groaned in fear when our rear wheels
spun and the car slid to the edge of the cliff. When
we finally made it to the ChaZhu Valley, DhanZhen stopped
the car and we got out to look at the new ChaZhu Valley
Health Clinic sparkling in the distance below us on
the valley floor amid the lush green of the wheat and
barley fields. DanZhen has been involved with our project
since its inception and says his enthusiasm for the
project is matched by that of the villagers. As we got
into the car and drove closer to the clinic, I felt
my sense of wonderment increase as this 
absolutely
beautiful building, trimmed in Tibetan architectural
details, transformed from a vision in the distance into
a solid presence: a representation of the joining of
the modern sanitized space of healing with the ancient
methods of Tibetan medicine. I felt overwhelmed to think
that Dorjee Tsewang and his small group of American
friends in Ojai had had a dream of a clinic in rural
Tibet and now DhanZhen Tsering and his small group of
his friends had been able to bring this dream to fruition
in such a magnificent way.
That
night we stayed at Dorjee's family's home and slept
solidly after two days of journeying. The house was
the traditional earthen floor, wood and clay structure
with the modern amenities of electricity, telephone,
and television. Electricity came to the ChaZhu Valley
two years ago and running water arrived at a tap outside
their back door one year ago. Cooking is still done
on a dung and straw fed brick stove.
The
next day I spent the whole day in the old clinic with
Dr. Sonan Ji and her husband , XiaBa, a Tibetan medicine
doctor. They have set up their clinic in two rented
rooms in the village, a 10 minute walk from the new
clinic. They live in one room and have the clinic in
both rooms. I was examining patients on their couch
and on their bed. Dr. Sonan Ji had patients sitting
on the couch receiving medications by intravenous drip.
The patients I saw had coughs, congenital heart defects,
abdominal pain, cerebral palsy, arthritis, seizures,
eczema, psoriasis, and tuberculosis. I found Dr. Sonan
Ji and XiaBa to be very astute in determining whether
the patient needed to be treated with Chinese medicine,
Tibetan medicine, or Western medicine. The Western-style
drugs that they had in their pharmacy were all very
good ones. I was completely impressed with their competence
and their compassionate service to the community. When
clinic hours were over, XiaBa would take Dr. Sonam Ji
on his motorcycle to the homes of patients who were
too sick to walk to the clinic, so they could be examined
and treated. The level of care the villagers were receiving
and the selfless dedication of Dr. Sonan Ji and XaoBa
were heartwarming to me. When I left the village 5 days
later, I felt even more dedicated to our project and
the need to raise funds to provide medicines, health
education, and improved diagnostic methods, and free
medical care to the people of the ChaZhu Valley.
