Bhutan Acupuncture Clinic: The Rest of the Stay

The rest of the stay

I already came back to Boston, back to my life in the US. Before I went, Yeshey is the only one I felt familiar through email, now I left a lot of friends in Bhutan.

When I finally got a chance to rest, Thimphu had pouring rain for 2 days, my friends felt bad for me, I told them the universal was trying to test me that how much I could love this country.

I did go to the festival and enjoyed the story from dance and the traditional singing. Art always can express our deep emotion even I don't understand the words of the song. To my surprise, Chen and I got very special seat in the festival, when Yeshey told me that the 4th King ( current King's father)asked people to arrange this for me, I couldn't believe my ears. I just did what I planed to do here, but people are so appreciated even the King heard about it. Also I can feel how much the King cares about his people.

Yeshey called me the day before I left Thimphu that one of my patient's family invited us for dinner. Young Garab requested his mom cooking me a dinner, I was so moved. He has cerebral Palsy, when his grandma and sister brought him to the hospital, I didn't know how much it would help him, his whole body was so tense even hard to stay in the wheelchair, there is no way I could put any needles in his body but the head, that was what I did.

Unbelievable, Garab told his mother he could sleep better and more relaxed.

I brought some needles with me to Garab's house, he was so happy that he could have one more session before I leave. To me, if Garab felt little better, this trip worth all the effect everyone put in.

Bhutan is a small country, my friend Yeshey's feet covered almost every corner of it, he trekked 48 days one time, took beautiful photos of the Wild life here, some of his photos are in very prestigious museums.

Before I went to Bhutan, I asked Yeshey that if it's possible to set up a temporary clinic in the countryside, he told me that the distant is short but the drive is long. I finally got it when we went to Punakha. It took us three and half hour for 72km. Because of the road, some of my patients drove 10 hours to Thimphu to see me, there is no way I could let them go without a treatment.

Punakha is beautiful, much quite than Thimphu. I told Yeshey Punakha is more like the Bhutan in my mind not Thimphu. We visit the famous Punakha Dzong. The architecture is so unique in Bhutan, I love it, even the country is open the door to the outside world, they still kept the traditional style. I miss the old houses in China, when I took the train from Beijing back to my hometown in the south, high concrete building is all you can see. We should learn the best from outside world, but don't lose the essence of yourself.

There is a nunnery on the top of the mountain can see the whole valley, we decided to go there, plus I had a patient from this nunnery, I wanted to see how was she doing as well.

My patient went to Thimphu for acupuncture that day, my colleagues would take care of her, but there is another girl here had bad headache at the moment, I have needles with me, so we found a place for her to get some relief. When I was treating her, More and more girls came, we started talking and laughing. There is a girl caught my eye, she did not ask for treatment, just busy to serve hot rice soup and hot tea for everyone. When I finished with all the girls who need a session, she told me that she loves cook, I told her that I will share all the information about food with her. We exchanged Wechat.

Wechat is from China, like Facebook here, everyone I know in Bhutan use it, they told me because you can leave voice mail directly through it, much easier for people don't know how to write. After I came back, I already formed a group of friends from Bhutan, we share good ideas about food and healthy life style together.

If you go to Bhutan, you have to see Tiger's nest, we did the day before we came back to US.

We followed Yeshey's advice started our hiking at 6:30, it was quite, feels the whole place belong to you, of course the dogs as well.

The clouds made the mountain very special, we could see Tiger's nest all the time as we climbing, it's just magnificent.

Yeshey sent Tshering with us, she is a lovely, young, modern girl, we enjoyed each other a lot. I saw the struggle of young people from her and the young patients in the hospital, it's normal process for us to grow. She told me without any financial burden but still got lost, not fulfilled, not very happy. I shared my experience with her, not avoid any growth pain, learn from it and be patient with yourself.

We all know Bhutan is the happiest nation in the world, happiness is within, with the country open the door to the world, with more and more temptation from outside world, how to balance your inner peace with the outside chaos, it will be a learning process for the people there. The country is rooted in Buddhism practice, that probably will help.

I really love the people there.