Ancient yoga provides exercise in prosperity

Encounter

While visiting a job fair, Tsering Palmo was delighted to see that Gonpo's company was recruiting trainers for a program aimed at promoting Shangshung yoga.

At the time, she had no idea what the practice involved, and assumed that it was a branch of mainstream yoga.

The company dangled tempting benefits in front of applicants, promising 50,000 yuan to start a Shangshung studio and a rent-free, well-furnished space that can be used as a classroom.

Tsering Palmo was told that there would be plenty of opportunities to talk with healthcare experts-most of whom were skilled in traditional Tibetan medicine-and counselors, who could offer guidance to young entrepreneurs regarding the selection of business models. Moreover, she would be able to quit the program when she no longer needed its support.

She and many other young entrepreneurs quickly reaped the benefits.

Penpa, a Tibetan medicine graduate in Nyingchi who joined the company this year, said the arrangement enabled him to improve quickly in terms of clinical practice and taught him to tap his academic expertise for a financial payback.

With the help of counselors, the 25-year-old from a farming and herding family in rural Nyingchi designed a sachet containing a dozen fragrant herbs that produce a nerve-soothing aroma. Penpa discovered the recipe in classic Tibetan medicine literature.

The sachets, decorated with traditional patterns and characters representing good luck and happiness, are intended to be hung in cars or bedrooms.

"Many traditional medicine graduates help experienced practitioners. They don't need to think too much, because the experts dictate the medicines they should prescribe," he said.

In addition to acquiring the skills of the rapidly disappearing Shangshung practice, Tsering Palmo quickly discovered that her unplanned, partially understood career choice enabled her to delve into a realm that embodies the classic Tibetan values and worldview, but with great financial prospects.

"Indian and Tibetan yoga have their respective features," she said. "But, as an ethnic Tibetan, I see greater significance in pursuing in-depth study of our own style of yoga."

She said her confidence comes from her rising income and people's greater awareness of health, plus a tourism boom in Tibet.

Figures from the regional government show that in the first half of the year, per capita disposable income in Tibet reached 7,792 yuan, a 12.7 percent rise year-on-year and 3.9 percentage points higher than the national average.

Liang Min, 35, who has run a noodle restaurant opposite the Hospital of Tibetan Medicine in Lhasa for two years, said she sees countless herders from rural Shigatse and Nagqu heading to the building to access healthcare, usually ahead of Tibetan New Year.

"After a soothing medicated bath, they come to my place for a bowl of noodles, and stay in a nearby hotel until the celebrations are concluded," she said.