PROGRESS AND EXPERIENCE IN HIS CHIKITSHALAYA AND RESEARCH CENTER.

The history of direct man plant relationships including the uses of herbal medicine perhaps dates back as early as the origin and development of mankind itself. The prescriptions of SANJBANIBUTTI available in Ironical hills y the Baidyaraj as stated in ‘Ramayana’ the Hindu religious literature needs no elaboration. Along with civilization and gradual progress of science and technology, the traditional system of medicinal practice went on being feeble and unconcerned, concerning them to few rural,tribal and frienge area hands. It is only in the later part of the century when the vast acquaintance of scientific achievements have found a reason to look back to nature and its resources, the another mother-house, fully aware that its protection conservation and ascertaining of potentialities, cannot wait for another generation.

In this line and dedicated to the preservation of knowledge of natural herbal medicine , Baidhya Chhewang Pakhrin, perhaps a one among a few Indian herbalists, who have infact been serving the rural mass in the large scale.

Baidhya Chhewang Pakhrin has been healing bone fractures with wild herbal medicines for over 40 years, single-handedly.This knowledge of treatment has been inherited from his fore-fathers, and is being successfully carried out today for the generation. The system of secret knowledge of healings said to have come to the first Baidhya of the family as a blessing in his dream. Be that as it may , the knowledge has successfully been practiced and from a small part time practice in a house clinic, it has gained a shape of full profession today. Baidhya Pakrin has been able to institute a 20-bedded hospital with cabins as of now. The hospital was constructed through donations and public contributions and was inaugurated on the 27th February 1995.

The enthusiasm of local people in construction of this hospital speaks itself of its immense use to local and poor section. The hospital is located at 16th mile , Kalimpong in the district of Darjeeling . Baidhya Chhewang Pakrin possesses the degree of Yunani Medicine from Patna, India, and the hospital is affiliated to the Council of Alternative System of Medicine, Canal Street, Calcutta- 14,a registered body of West Bengal State.

OBJECTIVES:

In the initial stages the treatment practice was done purely on social attitude,as of a command from supernatural power. However with the progress of time , the increasing number of patients and local people in general drove and motivated the Baidhya to institute a systematic hospital. The hospital also aims at conservations of traditional knowledge of healing to benefit the needy and rural mass and to carry out further researches in this line with scientific approaches to enable the system to move along and as good as the allopathic system of medicine. Imparting of training to other herbalists in its system and framework, time to time is also significant.

In BONE FRACTURE, the healing process is carried out successively in the following manner :-

1.Medicinal plants and other related items are collected fresh from the forests and private farmlands.
2.Collections are dried.
3.Dried samples are processed into making pastes, dusts or decoction by various processes as the need may be.
4.A preservation technique is lacking, the medicines used are all freshly prepared.
5.The patient in question is, X-ray examined if necessary, in other clinics.
6.Local anaesthesia is given to the patients. The anaesthetic, is a mixture of nine different herbal powders processed after boiling.
7.Bone setting is done, the prepared paste of medicine is applied, framed in bamboo chips and carefully tightened by plastering.
8.A complete bed rest for 15 days is advised.
9.The frame is undone after 15 days for study of progress.
10.Application of medicine and reframing is done after examination as before and bed-rest for another 15 days is allowed.
11.Finally the frame is removed after 30 days. In all successful cases, the patient is free to go home after 45-60 days.
A third framing is done whenever necessary.For the whole time of treatment, oral administration of medicines in the form of powder is also carried out, continuously, Formulation, oil massage, physio-therapy and acupuncture are practiced.

    

Bone setting.	Bone reframing.	After removal of frame.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

In his tenure of 44 years Baidhya Chhewang Pakrin has alone healed 27,985 patients. The case of ailments admitted to the hospital has continuously increased year by year, the highest record been the 1995 itself with 2 months of the year left .

The year wise record of office registered from 1986-1995 also certifies the regular increase in number of patients.

The plants and other materials used in preparing medicines are all-secret to himself and is a concerned knowledge within the family.

The cases of ailments in regular come from different parts of Darjeeling District, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri Dirstict, Nepal,Bhutan Assam and occasionally from other parts of the country. Amongst the treatment the difficult and notable cases are not uncommon certified by the patients themselves the treatment of Mr. Nabin Chettri and Mr .Sonam Dorjee both of whom have admitted in their letter about being rejected from Govt. hospitals is worth mentioning. The maximum number of cases comes from Darjeeling District itself followed by the neighbouring state of Sikkim. Dr. M.K. Chettri, an international personality in medicine has appreciated the activities of Baidhya Pakrin in black and white.

He has received

AWARD OF EXELLENCE from Raphael College, Darjeeling on 16th Dec 95 VOCATIONAL AWARD OF EXCELLENCE,LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD from Rotary Club of Kalimpong in 1997-98. JIBAK MEMORIAL AWARD by the council of Alternative system of Medicines, Calcutta in 1995.

THE OBVIOUS THAT ARISES IS ‘Why do people rush to this traditional method of herbal treatment?’

It had been found that the following category of ailing patients comes to this Chikitsalaya.

1. Patients avoiding allopathic treatment, Surgery and total anaesthesia.
2. Patients needing early recovery (within one month).
3. Poor and rural people who cannot bear the expenditure of other hospitals.
4. Patients requiring hospital comfort.
5. Desperate patients rejected from Govt. hospitals.

PROBLEMS:

The lack of financial support seems to be the major hurdle in the progress of the system of treatment as formulated and planned by Baidhya Pakhrin. As a consequence it has never been up to his expectation,so the projects and plants are lying inside the calyptra of paper files.

The hospital is still unable to install minor requirements such as X-Ray machine, Preservation Technology, Physio-therapeutic instruments, Dusting machines, owing to this financial strain. Researches towards advanced technology of treatment, expansion of hospital building and beds to accommodate more patients, supply of daily foods to the patients are all in stand still. The sufferers are also subordinate staff and field collectors who are not being paid to the satisfaction of the Baidhya himself.

CONCLUSION:

The 20th century conscience of looking back to nature has a food for thought and Baidhya Pakrin’s Chikitsalaya of herbal medicines, stands an example in living. This herbal system of healing should be preserved and protected in the larger interest of the people as well as for future researches in this line, with a view to benefitting wider spectra of needy people.

The system of treatment is progressing successfully as an easier method of healing without side effect. Because the primary source of these medicines lies in the Himalayan forests, the exploitation should be planned and guided from the view point of Environment Protection and conservation of nature. The Himalayan forests which harbour such life saving plant resources, many of which are yet to be known or studied, needs to be saved.

The Philanthropic man as Dr. M.K. Chettri entitles him in his letter, Baidhya Pakhrin himself says

Each and every plant can heal the broken bones, each and every leaf can give man, a new life.

Courtesy : R.B. BHUJEL, KALIMPONG COLLEGE, KALIMPONG, DARJEELING, INDIA.