Are there any medicinal plants cultivated in Ladakh?
PALMO: Currently there is no cultivation of medicinal plants. The Emchis go out and collect herbs and then send them to Dharamsala or Changthang. There is more and more use of herbal medicine now. Large quantities are sent out of Ladakh. There is demand from New Delhi, Dharamsala and Darjeeling for the herbs, but the only areas where they grow are Tibet, Ladakh, Bhutan, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. From my own experience in collecting herbs as a student, I could see that very large quantities are being collected each year. I am concerned that some of the plants used in Tibetan traditional herbal medicine may be in danger of extinction. It is important to make sure that there are replacements for these herbs. I would like to see medicinal herbs cultivated in Ladakh and I am in the process of developing a proposal for the future cultivation of medicinal plants. KLAPPER: Given the very few Ladakhis formally trained in Tibetan medicine, what motivated you to become a doc
