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Tsomoriri - Nomad
Eye Care Project
In 2006 Khandro-la visited
the nomadic people of Tsomoriri, Ladakh. These nomads have
deep devotion and trust to her and her lineage. Khandro-la
was deeply moved by their purity and also their obvious need
for eye care. They continued coming to her for blessing to
heal their eyes and due to her modern exposure she realized
that what they really needed on the material level was good
eye care.
With the blessings of the Buddha's and
Khandro-la's pure intention an eye specialist from Australia,
who has much experience in setting up remote eye care projects,
came to Tsomoriri and worked with the Khachodling team to
treat the nomads and investigate further.
The Tsomoriri community does not easily
trust NGO's as they have had bad experiences of inexperienced
doctors and experimentation. In contrast Khandro-la herself
is deeply trusted in these parts and all levels have joined
together with her to organize this Khachodling care project.
Khandro-la still has to personally travel to the area before
the visit of the eye doctor to set up this programme.
In 2007 the Khachodling eye team consisted
of the eye specialist, a monk organisor and a western student
of Khandro-la whom has been living at the nunnery in Zanskar
as well as Khachodling's amchi (traditional healer). Over
100 nomads were treated and small operations conducted. Both
eastern and western modalities harmoniously worked together,
just as the Khachodling vision emphasizes. The report from
the eye specialist indicates that as this area is high altitude
(15,00 ft) there is ultra violet damage and glare sensitivity.
Everyone needs sunglasses and many need prescription glasses.
Cataracts and other eye damage is also common. Smoke from
cooking and heating fires and living with animals also contributes
to poor eyes. In general many ailments can be well treated
by ophthalmic technicians with basic equipment and medicines
and specialist problems like the many cataracts can be treated
by international and local Indian specialist clinics to be
set up annually.
In 2008 it is Khandro-la's deep aspiration
and wish to develop a fully-fledged eye service that will
treat remote people in Ladakh and Zanskar. This depends on
the availability of funds. The plan is to eventually employ
and train up to nine local people as ophthalmic technicians
and provide them with the support (medicines, equipment and
transport) needed to diagnose and treat in local communities
and set up treatment for the annual visit of eye specialists.
This project is an urgent and high priority
for Khachodling funding by July 2008.
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