| Zangmo ‘de-trancing’ | The session takes a heavy toll on the Oracle, who inherited her role at the age of four when her mother died. Once the last patient is gone, the spirit departs and an exhausted Sonam returns. Even at the age of 82, she doesn’t feel able to give up her calling. | 02:06 |
| Zangmo interview | SONAM ZANGMO: I can specifically cure things to do with black magic and spirits – and oracles have the power to diagnose diseases that the doctors can’t. | 02:32 |
| Ladakh mountains | Music | 02:48 |
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| CAMPBELL: The Oracle is part of a complex system of faith-based healing that spread to northern India from neighbouring Tibet. | 02:53 |
| Villager | Almost every village here has an amchi - a Tibetan folk doctor who mixes potions from flowers and herbs, and practices traditional healing. What many don’t have is access to hospitals or trained doctors. The result is one of the worst health records in India. But a British-born Australian adventurer wants to change that. | 03:08 |
| Weare interview | GARRY WEARE: In some of the more remote villages the rate of infant mortality could be something in the region of about one in two which I think on anyone’s standards nowadays is unacceptable. | 03:07 |
| Photos. Weare trekking | Music | 03:49 |
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| CAMPBELL: Garry Weare knows Ladakh as well as an outsider can. He’s spent 30 years here, pioneering trekking routes for Western visitors. The region is often called ‘Little Tibet’ for its cultural similarities with its neighbour. | 03:51 |
| Weare interview. Super: | GARRY WEARE: And of course it’s wonderful for us walking through as trekkers to idealise the whole situation | 04:05 |
| Goat herders | but, yeah, for them, you know, life is hard. It is very much dependent on the elements and it isn’t quite so sort of, you know, as idyllic as some people | 04:12 |
| Weare interview | sort of make out, as some sort of glorified Shangri-La. | 04:21 |
| Zanskar Valley/Mountains | Music | 04:25 |
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| CAMPBELL: One of the toughest places is in the isolated Zanskar Valley, which is cut off from the capital Leh by high mountains. | 04:37 |
| Driving shots | Garry Weare’s aid group, the Australian Himalayan Foundation is trialling a radical experiment here to bring traditional care into the modern age. Just a generation ago, the only way to reach this area was by yak train. Even now, the main road in is just a rough dirt track. | 04:49 |
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| Music | 05:08 |
| Padum | CAMPBELL: Our destination is the main town of Zanskar, a dusty administrative outpost called Padum. Garry Weare has organised a week long seminar here to train local amchis in modern health practices. | 05:26 |
| Amchis on bus to seminar | Many of them have had longer journeys than us, walking for days over the mountains for the final bus ride to the seminar. | 05:45 |
| Weare greets amchis | It’s the first time many of these amchis will be exposed to Western medical theory. Trained doctors have been brought in from Leh to teach them, but they won’t be telling the amchis to abandon their traditional medicine. | 05:59 |
| Amchis at seminar | GARRY WEARE: The big problem about Zanskar is that many of the villages are many, many days away from the nearest road head, | 06:14 |
| Weare | so if there is going to be a problem, well primary healthcare is virtually equated to the amchi system. | 06:23 |
| Amchis at seminar | CAMPBELL: The aim is to educate amchis in basics like nutrition and modern hygiene, and to help them judge when patients should seek out doctors. Most of these village healers are illiterate and unqualified, but they’re the only care for people in remote villages. | 06:31 |
| Pansok addresses amchis | The chief instructor, Punsok, is both a doctor and a fully qualified Tibetan medicine specialist. | 06:57 |
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| PUNSOK: I’m going to explain some aspects of the urinary system. | 07:03 |
| Amchi heats rods | CAMPBELL: To western eyes, some amchi practices can appear dubious. News of the seminar drew dozens of locals seeking treatment. | 07:16 |
| Woman consults amchi | This woman suffers from dizziness and nausea. WOMAN: Once I went to a doctor who told me I had a headache, and gave me medicine that wasn’t helpful. | 07:25 |
| Amchi heats rods | CAMPBELL: Instead, she’s about to be burned with a hot poker. The amchi insists this will cure her suffering. | 07:45 |
| Amchi examines woman’s head then applies rod | AMCHI: You have to treat it here. Is it over here? WOMAN: Yes, right there. AMCHI: Keep this down, and hold her. There, it’s done. Now wash and clean it up. | 08:02 |
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| CAMPBELL: But Garry Weare is convinced they have to work with the existing system rather than try to replace it. GARRY WEARE: There’s a lot of positive things can come out | 08:19 |
| Weare interview. Super: | of traditional medical practices that have been practiced in Tibet for many, many, many centuries. What we’ve been looking for is a way in which we can combine the best of both worlds. | 08:27 |
| Amchis at seminar | CAMPBELL: His main focus is on the young women now becoming amchis. A role that was traditionally passed down from father to son. They’re keen to learn the most effective treatments, even if they’re not traditional. | 08:40 |
| Rigzen at seminar | Rigzen Yangdon who’s thirty, came to the first seminar a year ago and has walked for three days to come to the second. | 08:56 |
| Rigzen interview | RIGZEN YANGDON: We’re lacking knowledge, and we have to work really hard. There’s no proper education because females can’t be sent away to school. | 09:04 |
| Rigzen at hospital, examines pregnant woman | CAMPBELL: As part of the aid project, Yangdon and a group of other young female amchis spent three months in the main hospital in Leh learning to care for pregnant women. NURSE AT HOSPITAL: You have to feel it this way. Can you feel the head of the baby? I can feel it from this side. Can you feel it? | 09:08 |
| Nurse gives babies to woman | CAMPBELL: This woman came all the way from Zanskar to give birth to twins but most women live too far from hospitals or they’re uncomfortable dealing with strangers, even for serious illness. | 09:54 |
| Village | Music | 10:08 |
| Tsultia Zangmo | CAMPBELL: In a village close to Padum in Zanskar we met Tsultia Zangmo. | 10:18 |
| Yak in snow | Music | 10:27 |
| Tsultia Zangmo | CAMPBELL: She was blessed with a healthy baby boy but when he fell ill with a cold, she thought he’d been cursed by the devil. | 10:31 |
| Tsultia interview/ Photos of baby | TSULTIA ZANGMO: We showed the baby to the Oracle, and she said if he survived the next 3 days, he’d live. Otherwise there’d be no hope. For two days the baby cried all night until dawn. And the next day around 3 o’clock he died. I really felt so sad. | 10:41 |
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| CAMPBELL: Her son was just three months old. In the most remote villages, one in every two children will die before the age of five. | 11:04 |
| Yangdon with women | But Yangdon is determined that won’t happen in her village, where she’s the first female amchi. | 11:17 |
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| RIGZEN YANGDON: In my village most of the women feel embarrassed to consult male amchis. | 11:23 |
| Yangdon in consultation with woman | [To woman in her village] So what’s your birth plan… at hospital or at home? WOMAN: At home. RIGZEN YANGDON: You feel more comfortable at home than at hospital? WOMAN: Yes I feel easier here. | 11:35 |
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| CAMPBELL: The nearest hospital is 50 kilometres away, a daunting distance in a region where few can afford a car. But she encourages them to make the effort. | 11:50 |
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| RIGZEN YANGDON: Take care of your diet and eat healthy foods regularly. Otherwise you’ll face difficulties getting enough red blood cells, which pregnant women normally have problems with. If there’s deficiency in the blood, then amchi medicine doesn’t help. Preferably you should go to the hospital. There’s a big danger for the mother as well as for the baby. | 11:58 |
| Weare with seminar participants | CAMPBELL: It’s only a year since Garry Weare’s project began, but it’s been embraced by the district’s amchis. They leave with a fresh supply of flowers and herbs, enough for several months of medicinal treatment. | 12:33 |
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| Music | 12:45 |
| School kids play cricket | CAMPBELL The next challenge is to extend the program throughout Ladakh. For Garry Weare, it’s a nice thought to contemplate as he prepares for his next trek through a land he loves. | 13:00 |
| Weare interview | GARRY WEARE: I suppose the real motivation is that over the years so many Australian people have come through various parts of the Himalaya and have wanted to put something back in one shape, form or another. | 13:14 |
| School kids | I think wherever you go in the Himalaya, people have got so much to offer you. It’s just a wonderful experience. I don’t know what I’ll do in my next incarnation, but this one I’m certainly pleased with anyway. | 13:29 |
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| 13:48 |
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| Further information |
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| Garry Weare's most recent book, "A Long Walk in the Himalaya: A Trek from the Ganges to Kashmir" is out in paperback, pub. Transit Lounge Publishing |
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| Reporter: Eric Campbell Camera: Wayne McAllister Editor: Garth Thomas Producer: Marianne Leitch |
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