Sowa Rigpa in Bhutan and Physicians of this Century
When Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel came to Bhutan in 1616, his Minister of Religion, Tenzing Drukey, who was also an esteemed physician, started the spread and teaching of Sowa Rigpa. Although there were sporadic instances of Bhutanese being sent by their patrons to study this art in Tibet before then, it was only after 1616 that Sowa Rigpa was established permanently in Bhutan.

Since then, the Bhutanese tradition of Sowa Rigpa has developed independently of its Tibetan origins and although the basic texts used are the same, some differences in practice make it a tradition particular to the country. The specific knowledge and experience gained by the Bhutanese over the centuries are still very much alive in this medical tradition that originated in Tibet. The natural environment, with its exceptionally rich flora, also enabled the development of a pharmacopoeia of which there is no equivalent anywhere in the world.

Many are the Bhutanese traditional doctors that in the past excelled in their skill and whose names have remained alive in the memory of the people long after their death. Unfortunately, very little is known of the traditional doctors who practised in Bhutan from the time of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal to the time of the Wangchuck dynasty.

His Majesty Ugyen Wangchuck, the first King of this dynasty, had at his court a personal physician called Dungtsho Pemba, who was the descendant of a family of traditional doctors and whose father, Dungtsho Gyeltshen, was said to have been the personal physician to the first King's father, Jigme Namgyal.

Dungtsho Gyeltshen was born near Tongsa and was trained in Tibet in the famous Lhasa Medical School of Chagpori. Dungtsho Pemba's son, Dungtsho Penjore, who also studied at Chagpori, acquired the fame of being the best doctor in the family and was called to serve at the court of His Majesty Jigme Wangchuck, the second King of Bhutan. According to some accounts, Dungtsho Penjore, was very close to the second King and a very good archer. It is sometimes added that he had two wives and numerous concubines - a renowned Casanova in his time.

The above mentioned physicians used to send raw materials to Tibet and received the prepared drugs from Chagpori. They apparently never manufactured the medicines.

Another Bhutanese physician at the court of the second King was Mahaguru, the former Gangtey Trulku's physician. Mahaguru himself was from Gangtey Gompa and trained as a doctor there. He was a very saintly man as well as a good doctor, prepared his own medicines whenever he needed to prescribe them to his patients. On His Majesty's orders, he was provided with regular rations from Wangdi Phodrang Dzong. At the age of seventy eight he publicly announced the time and place of his death. His son stated that this happened quietly and painlessly as his father predicted. People estimated that he died at the age of 100.

In the first half of the twentieth century, another famous physician was Dungtsho Chimi Gyeltshen. He was born in Mongar and when he turned twenty, he went to Tibet to study medicine at Chagpori. After staying there for sixteen years, during which he rose to the highest rank for a traditional physician, he came back to Bhutan at the bidding of Ashi Kenchock Wangmo, the second King's younger sister, and settled near Kurtoe. Dungtsho Chime Gyeltshen died in Lhuntshi in 1966.

The first practitioner to work as a government servant, in the modern sense of the word, is Dungtsho Pema Dorji, who opened the first government run "traditional" dispensary in Dechencholing, Thimphu. (see insert) During the first year of work at the dispensary, he was joined by Dungtsho Sherab Jorden, the former physician to Lam Namkhey Ngyingpo, at Karchu, Tibet. Shortly after that Ladakh Amchi, another physician joined the team. He has since died. These two physicians were both graduates from the other medical school at Lhasa, the Mentsikhang.

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