Traditionally, medical skill has been handed down from generation to generation in families and in the monasteries. In addition doctors  used to undertake medical training at colleges like the famous  Chagpori Medical Collage in Lhasa. Tragically during the communist  occupation of Tibet, traditional medical colleges and monasteries  were destroyed in Tibet interrupting the traditional passage of  knowledge. They have been re-established in exile in India and the  doctors at Sacred Land received their education from the Chakpori  Medical College, which was re-established in Kalimpong, Shikkim. They  trained more than seven years under Trokgawa Rinpoche and received  their graduation certificates at MenTseKang in Dharamasala, with the  blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

A Tibetan doctor is known as an Amchie, and a community health worker  as a Men-pa. The knowledge and training of Amchies and Menpas can  vary tremendously. The formalisation of training through medical  colleges has become increasingly important as Tibetan medicine  becomes more wide spread. Doctors who qualify from colleges such as  Chagpori have studied at least seven years. For the first five years  they study the Four Medical Tantras in winter and in summer they  study and collect medicinal plants. They then spend at least two  years doing practical training before they are qualified. After this  some doctors choose to take extra studies in clinical practice or in  medical plants and the art of making medicine.

The two Amchies working for Sacred Land are Sherab Tenzin Barma and  Lhakpa Nurbu Sherpa. Dr Sherab mostly runs the clinic in Namche  Bazaar with his wife Pema. Dr. Lhakpa is in charge of the pharmacy  and medical herb gardens in Techo. Tashi is the medical assistant or  Menpa, who is gaining further experience at the clinic along with  Pasang, and Rinji who help at the pharmacy.

In the more distant future, we envision a medical school being set up  in Techo, located near the pharmacy and plantation. The goal of the  medical school would be to provide formal, traditional training in  Tibetan medicine in a setting favourable for learning about medicine  and medicinal plants in their natural environment. Since most Tibetan medical knowledge is not being disseminated in an academic setting  other than at a couple of large city-based institutions and such  education has been predominantly unattainable in remote areas, our  proposed medical school will aim to provide opportunities for interested monks, nuns and lay people to train as "men-pa,"  (traditional community health workers).