By Willie Gordon Suting
A patient not only brings emotional burden, but also financial burden on his loved ones. And with modern medicines burning holes in pockets, people are turning to Ayurveda or herbal healthcare.
Meghalaya has some pioneering figures in the field who are altering preconceived notions. One of the pioneers was late John Kharduit.
Meet Alka Kharsati, Rose L Mawlong and Kriston Thabah. These three individuals are among the many herbal practitioners in the state who are success stories in themselves.
Loyal to the legacy of their family who were healers and curious about medicinal aspects of plants and herbs in rural and border areas, these practitioners have been part of numerous workshops, conferences and seminars having healed many patients.
The Society for Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge and Practice (SPIKAP), of whom Kharsati is a member, has with its efforts yielded the passing of Khasi Traditional Medicine Act in March 2, 2011.
Both SPIKAP and the Act were the brainchild of John Kharshiing and Toki Blah. In 2011, SPIKAP’s aims and objectives were to provide awareness on indigenous herbal medicine and to promote health tourism so as to be on a par with Ayurvedic medicine in the national stage.
Martin Luther Christian University in recent years also awarded Honourary Doctoral Degrees in Traditional Medicine to Kharsati, Mawlong, Thabah and many other herbal practitioners in the state. In 2004, these herbal practitioners from Meghalaya were invited by former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for a special function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Each practitioner was interviewed by Kalam and, through his approval, each were certified as herbal doctors.
Learning the skill
Kharsati had set out for a different career after completing a course from Shahnaz Husain International Beauty Academy in New Delhi. As a beautician, she received people with health problems who wanted to look good. This made her develop an interest in ayurveda after learning the anatomy of the human body.
Kharsati was a curious observer of patients her grandmother and mother healed. “Even my great grandfather was a healer. As a child I used to observe how my grandmother healed patients.”
It was during 1997 when Kharsati’s grandmother fell ill that Kharsati tried to look after the patients. “A patient came with a broken forearm. I applied some paste exactly the way I used to see my grandmother treat her patients. After a few weeks she was cured.”
That boosted her confidence. Her second patient was a woman from Pynursla village. Her swollen hand was cured in two weeks by applying paste, oral medicine and advising controlled diet.
Kharsati never looked back as she went on to cure former Meghalaya governor MM Jacob, besides other dignitaries who appreciated her work.
Mawlong gives a similar story. “My great grandfather and my mother were healers. But I feel I have pushed myself further in absorbing everything.” The octogenarian recalls the time when half his body got paralysed in 1972. “I was hospitalised in Civil Hospital and Robert Hospital where I observed whatever my doctors and nurses did. I was friends with them and they shared many things about medicine,” he says.
With everything he learned from his great grandfather and mother coupled with the knowledge received from hospitals, he went deep into studying herbs and plants in rural and border areas.
“The initial stage was healing pets and animals of neighbours like dogs, goats and cows in my village Mawphlang. Then after some years young injured football players came, and I helped them in recovering.”
Since then, Mawlong has been solving major cases like broken bones, strokes, skin cancer and spondylitis.
Thabah, whose great grandfather and grandfather were healers, says he has lived with herbs all his life. He recalls the past when people in his village Pynursla didn’t know of scientific medicines. “When I was 35, I started healing people. I got positive feedback as they were cured. Soon word spread and here I am now as a full-time practitioner.”
Perceptions & healing
Mawlong says with assurance that people are disillusioned with big hospitals outside. “It is expensive rates for operations and medicines but with no cure plus side-effects.”
He says most of his patients are ones who are being rejected by big hospitals. “It is a speedy process but which requires lots of faith and patience.”
Mawlong recalls a patient who was hospitalised for three months in NEIGRIHMS. He had a broken joint in the leg. “I cured him for a period of just one and a half months applying dawai kynbat (indigenous herbs) and oils.”
Another patient hospitalised in Civil Hospital had 12 screws inserted in his leg. “It took me just one month to cure him. He was able to walk again,” says Mawlong.
Kharsati who has minimum of 20 patients visiting her clinic at Nongrimmaw in Laitumkhrah, says operations are important but not with herbal healthcare. “Allopathy of course has good advancement technologically and scientifically. But ours depends on complete faith,” she adds.
Thabah says Shillongites want him to open a clinic in the city as he has cured major cases like swollen limbs and initial stages of tuberculosis and cancer. “They feel grateful, especially the villagers who come from poor families,” he adds.
Mawlong, Kharsati and Thabah empathise patients who cannot afford medicine and counselling, and request them with reasonable rates. “Our rates are 20 percent of allopathy treatment,” says Mawlong, who has a 16-bed nursing home in Mawphlang that was established in 2009. His sons, Anaskimland and Hubertson Khonghat, assist him in the small hospital.
Former minister of Social Welfare JA Lyngdoh helped him with the construction of the nursing home. Mawphlang MLA SK Sunn helped Mawlong with water connection.
Mawlong’s patients come from different parts of the world to seek healing. He has had patients from Australia, China, Nigeria, the US, Canada and Japan. Kharsati too is used to having foreign patients. “Recently, a group of medical students from Italy and the US came to observe the way I healed people in my clinic,” she says.
Kharsati is recognised by Rockefeller Foundation Centre as herbal doctor. She has joined international conferences, workshops and study tours in Italy, Bangalore, Delhi and many other major Indian cities.
Patientsspeak
Another eminent doctor in the field is Ni Sing Khongjirem who has a hospital in Wahkhen.
Sinmaya Khongsne, a patient with a broken leg, says she went to Civil Hospital for operation. But Khongjirem’s oils, paste and tonics had cleaned the allopathic medicines from her body which caused pain.
“I can feel that the broken bones are slowly connecting. I believe in his word that it will only take three months,” she says.
The mother of a two-year-old boy, Medabon Umsong, says her child has a swollen leg.
“Khongjirem said there is some problem in the bones and veins. I have full faith that my boy will recover from this illness.”
On the government
When asked about government help, Kharsati says, “Of course KHADC is trying. But we need proper research centres, laboratories and herbal gardens.”
“For herbal medicine to grow, we need faith of the concerned people. It should be a teamwork of doctors and the government,” she says.
One of the aims and objectives of SPIKAP is to introduce health tourism through indigenous healers. The herbal doctors want to prove what they can do as healers provided there is financial support from the government. “As you see we lack facilities like X-ray machine, refrigerators for storing medicines, greenhouses and computers,” rues Mawlong.
Thabah, whose clinic is a small wooden cottage in Pynursla, says the Government should collaborate with doctors to come up with hospital.
“I would like to request MLA Prestone Tynsong (now Cabinet minister) to help people like us who struggle in this field,” he says.
Kharsati says both scenic beauty and herbal medicines of Meghalaya would be ideal for health tourism.
“There should be referral centres to direct patients to clinics and also hotels. The tie-up would mean the state’s infrastructure will increase.”
Government’s take
When asked what the government is planning on the subject, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma told Sunday Shillong, “We are currently busy discussing financial issues and budget of the state. But we consider herbal healthcare as very important. When we are done, we will focus on this.”
Health minister AL Hek during a phone call, said, “I have to first collect data and information from the bodies concerned. And then I can speak to the media.”
NPP had mentioned in its manifesto about the need to empower herbal healers.
The party’s state president, WR Kharlukhi, said, “We had submitted our proposal on herbal healthcare to the government.”
