Sacred
Land new clinic building (top with red roof) in Namche Bazaar
Clinic
Namche
Bazaar is a busy trading town on the trail to the base camp of
Mount Everest. In the last thirty years the number of outside
visitors to the area has grown dramatically.Now there are many
lodges
and hotels which cater to the trekkers. A tourist bazaar has also sprung
up as well as some very good bakeries. On Saturdays there is the local
bazaar where the villagers from the south come to sell their produce
such as vegetables and rice. There is also a colourful Tibetan bazaar
where traders from Tingri sell cheap Chinese goods as well as local
Tibetan butter, wool and meat. Everything is traded at Namche Bazaar
from baby Yaks to old mountaineering equipment.
Although the population of Namche is
relatively small, because of the trekkers, traders and porters the
clinic is busy. Every week sixty or more patients visit the clinic
and the doctors make house calls to patients in outlying villages at
least two times per week. There is
an excellent allopathic clinic at Khunde, but the traditional clinic
has become very popular with patients finding the medicine very effective
especially for long-term chronic ailments which western
medicine often has not treatment for. Therefore, the traditional medical
facilities provided by the clinic are much appreciated and a
great success.
In addition the doctors have provided free medical care at important gatherings
of the community such as the great prayer festival at the cave sacred to Guru
Rinpoche at Hallesie. This is in a distict just south of Solu Khumbu in the heavily
populated foot
hills. The festival was held for the first time in 2001 and was a
huge success. It was led by Trulshik Rinpoche with Tengboche
Rinpoche, over 1000 monks, nuns and practioners and 6000 Sherpa from
all sections of the community.
