Sowa-Rigpa on streamline

One year after the Parliament passed the bill amending the Indian Medicine Central Council (amendment) Act, the Union Health Ministry will soon issue the notification to formally recognise within the definition of Indian medicine the Sowa-Rigpa system that is practised in the sub-Himalayan regions in the country.

“The Department of Ayush has recognized the Sowa-Rigpa as Indian System of Medicine by amendment in the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970. The physicians practicing Sowa-Rigpa are called Amchi in the local area of Ladakh. The amendment will come into force by notification in the official gazette which is under process,” sources said.

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Massive health boost with Integrative Medicine

At least 10,000 people in 10 neighbouring villages at Vagat in Hoskote will soon enjoy a sustainable health system. Children here will not only be taught yoga at school, but all villagers will have access to an integrated health system, including homeopathy, Unani, Siddha, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Yoga and much more. 

The Rural Holistic Health Centre at Vagat is a first of its kind in rural India. The foundation stones for this centre and also the Soukya International Institute of Holistic and Integrative Medicine were unveiled on Sunday at the Soukya health centre in Whitefield. 

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Traditional knowledge meet on next month

Geneva-headquartered WIPO is responsible for promoting and protecting intellectual property rights worldwide. The World Intellectual Property Organisation, a specialised UN agency, along with Indian government will organise a three-day meet on traditional knowledge, including ayurveda, siddha and unani, next month. The meeting, to be held here, would help in creating more awareness about intellectual property rights and patents, that are crucial for protecting traditional knowledge.

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Relax ban on Indian Medicine, herbal drugs

India is not taking European Union's ban on the sale of its over-the-counter Indian Medicine and herbal drugs across Europe from May 1 lying down. A delegation of officials from India's department of Ayush and commerce visited Brussels in end-January to persuade EU to relax its decision by another 10 years. According to EU's Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD), companies making herbal products will have to provide clinical data to demonstrate its safety through use of those products within the EU for a minimum of 30 or 15 years within the EU, and 30 years outside the Union.  

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Herbal products will be banned from EU soon.

Thousands of kilometres away from their fractious border, India and China face a common threat. From May 1, a Brussels diktat known as the herbal directive, will effectively outlaw ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) from the 27-member countries of the European Union.

The directive in question was adopted in 2004 but it granted a seven-year grace period to manufacturers of herbal medicines to register, a deadline that expires on April 30.

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"Sowa Rigpa" got recognition among Indian systems of medicine

“Sowa-Rigpa” commonly known as Amchi system of medicine is one of the oldest, Living and well documented medical tradition of the world. It has been popularly practice in Tibet, Magnolia, Bhutan, some parts of China, Nepal, Himalayan regions of India and few parts of former Soviet Union etc..

History

There are various schools of thought about the origin of this medical tradition, some scholars believes that it is originated from India, some says China and others consider it to be originated from Tibetitself. The majority of theory and practice of Sowa-Rigpa is similar to “Ayurveda” . The first Ayurvedic influence came to Tibet during 3rd century AD but it became popular only after 7th centuries with the approach of Buddhism to Tibet. There after this trend of exportation of Indian medical literature, along with Buddhism and other Indian art and sciences were continued till early 19th century. India being the birth place of Buddha and Buddhism has always been favorite place for learning Buddhist art and culture for Tibetan students; lots of Indian scholars were also invited to Tibet for prorogation of Buddhism and other Indian art and sciences. This long association with India had resulted in translation and preservation of thousands of Indian literature on various subjects like religion, sciences, arts, culture and language etc. in Tibetan language. Out of these around twenty-five text related to medicine are also preserved in both canonical and non-canonical forms of Tibetan literatures. Many of these knowledge were further enriched in Tibet with the knowledge and skills of neighboring countries and their own ethnic knowledge. “Sowa-Rigpa” (Science of healing) is one of the classic examples of it.Gyud-Zi (four tantra) the fundamental text book of this medicine was first translated from India and enriched in Tibet with its own folklore and other medical tradition like Chinese and Persian etc. The impact of Sowa-Rigpa along with Buddhism and other Tibetan art and sciences were spread in neighboring Himalayan regions. In India this system has been practiced in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh,Darjeeling (West Bengal), Lahaul & Spiti (Himachal Pradesh) and Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir etc. In 2010 Sowa-Rigpa got its legal recognition among Indian Systems of Medicine under the Department of AYUSH^[1][2].

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