Healers and Counselors in Buddhist Ladakh
Abstract
During the past 35 years I have explored the psychological nature of healing and counseling in various parts of the non-Western world. Although not a practitioner, I have worked together with crossculturally oriented clinicians and counselors such as Juris G. Draguns, Jefferson M. Fish, and Roy Moodley, in an attempt to understand culturally distinctive healing practices through personal observation, the analysis of ethnographic descriptions and reports by medical
anthropologists, counseling psychologists, other specialists, and the comparative study of counseling and psychotherapy across the world (e.g., Gielen, Fish, & Draguns, 2008). I would like to give a brief overview of indigenous healers practicing in the Leh District of Ladakh, Northwest India. The district is mostly a Buddhist region situated in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. The 1981 Indian Census counted 68,380 residents in the district but by 2011 this
number had already increased to 147,104 persons. Surrounded by dramatic high-altitude mountain scenery, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, turnips, and walnut and apricot trees are grown in some of the valleys. Most residents are farmers, craftsmen, small businessmen, government officials, monks and nuns, or are employed by the Army.
They speak a variety of languages such as Ladakhi (a Tibetan
language), Urdu, Hindi, English, and Balti. Although 23% of the
people are Muslims, this article focuses on Buddhists endorsing some
form of Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism (Gielen, 1997).
References
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