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Consensus Communities
Yushu Consensus Community
Front view of the medical clinic built in Yushu, Qinghai Consensus Community, with support from Embassy of Ireland in Beijing.
Himalayan Consensus Founder Laurence Brahm visiting the latest progress on the clinic construction, accompanied by on-site project manager and monks in charge.
Inside view of the medical clinic, ready to open this winter 2009.
Founder Laurence Brahm gives a sponsorship appreciation plaque to honor The Embassy of Ireland in Beijing.
Founder Laurence Brahm visiting the first eye clinic built in Yushu, Qinghai Consensus Community, supported from the embassy of the Grand Duche of Luxembourg in Beijing.
Laurence Brahm on site, visiting one of the rooms in eye-clinic.
Location: Yushu, Qinghai, China
Commenced Date: 2008
Project Background
Project Vision:
Unlike the first three Consensus Communities, the Yushu Consensus Community has commenced with the establishment of two medical clinics within a local monastery — one a traditional Tibetan medicine clinic, the other being the first private eye clinic in any Tibetan region. The reason this Consensus Community began with the medical clinic was due to the urgent healthcare needs of this remote, largely nomadic region (accessible only by a 15-hour ride from the nearest city, Xining). The medical clinics are to be followed by an eco-tourism lodge operated by monks and nuns.
Funding is currently being sought to support a boutique wilderness lodge in Yushu, Qinghai Province. The lodge will have approximately eighteen rooms and common area, and will support programs for eco- tourism in the area. It will only employ Tibetans, prioritizing monks and nuns from Damkar Monastery, where both clinics are attached.
With the establishment of a new airport, Yushu will become a cultural and eco-tourism nexus point for travel throughout Qinghai, opening this once isolated region to the world. The objective is to provide an example of positive impact cultural-tourism that will serve as a model for the entire region. Unlike typical tourism, this sensitive eco-tourism model can protect, sustain, and evolve culture. Shambhala realizes it is crucial for the correct prototype to be established during the incipient stage of development of the Yushu area.
Heritage Restoration:
The largely nomadic area is significant as an important spiritual center of East Tibet that represents the Kahm sub-ethnic Tibetan group. Of equal importance, the wilderness lodge will be a center of microfinance for culturally sustainable product development. These products are local arts and crafts that we have identified and created through small family, group unit enterprises, which are being supported by our microfinance program. At the initial stage, the wilderness lodge will buy back products for décor and interior use, which, in turn, allows families to continue their operations while we work together to develop our outward sale network.
The arts and crafts of the region will represent the nomadic lifestyle of its indigenous population and will be directed to support these communities. Programs to train local nomadic families to lead horse tracking and other outdoor travel in the nearby mountains will be part of the overall operation of the eco-tourism lodge. Exploration trips to the source of the Yellow River glacier, visits to monasteries, and nomadic horse racing are exciting traditional features of the area that will be sensitively and carefully integrated as part of the eco-tourism lodge experience.
Healthcare Initiatives:
In 2006 Shambhala launched the Nomad Mobile Medical Clinic in the region, operated by monks and nuns trained in western and Tibetan medical traditions. An independent assessment end 2006 learned that the clinic saves 4-5 individuals per day roaming remote highland regions .Given the medical needs of this region, Shambhala sent a reconnaissance team to assess an appropriate monastery which would adopt the Terdrom Consensus Community’s Tashigang Monastery Medical Clinic. Damkar monastery was selected after a week of interviews, meetings and site visits.
The Damkar Monastery has both trained monks and nuns and an extensive social network, which allows the clinical services to reach wide groups. As evident in the Tashigang Monastery Medical Clinic, local nomads trust the monks and nuns trained under the Shambhala program because they provide traditional Tibetan medicine at an affordable price. Monks and nuns of Damkar Monastery will be able to reach out and provide services to many people. These monks and nuns will be empowered with technical skills incorporating both Tibetan and Western medicine.
The activities in the clinic are being carried by Doctor Lobsang Tuden, a qualified Tibetan traditional medical doctor with training in Western eye care under SEVA sight program at Menzikang Hospital in Lhasa, Tibet. Shambhala hasfunded over 500 eye operations provided to the area’s nomadic populations and continues to raise funds for these efforts.
In September 2009, Shambhala supported 413 free eye operations conducted for blind nomads in the region.
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