After attending the two morning sessions of Kagyu Monlam at the
Mahabodhi Stupa, Gyalwang Karmapa stopped off to inspect the
medical camp facilities, on his way back to Tergar Monastery.
This year the camp, sponsored by the Malaysia Life Foundation,
is based once more at the old Tourist Bungalow . Six Indian
doctors and a Tibetan doctor, provide the medical expertise but
there is also a pharmacy and two nurse practitioners, a
Taiwanese and a Tibetan. The clinic caters not just for
Bodhgaya’s sick, but has an outreach programme too; a bus is
sent to collect patients from local villages, they spend the day
at the medical camp, receive a free, simple but nutritious
lunch, and then are returned to their villages in the afternoon.
A long line of people was waiting for medical attention.
Fretting children, malnourished babies and infants with
distended stomachs and faded hair, toothless grandmothers and
old men with clouded eyes, the Gyalwang Karmapa surveyed them
all with a steady, compassionate gaze, as he strode with his
entourage towards the clinic building.
His Holiness was welcomed warmly by his elder sister, Ngodrup
Palzom, who has managed the medical camp for the past three
years. She introduced him to the staff and showed him the clinic
facilities.
Outside, on the sparse lawn, patients and their families were
beginning to enjoy their midday meal, served on old-style
Indian plates made from compressed, dried leaves, which can be
composted afterwards. They were being served rice, dal and a
vegetable dish. On the far side stood the tent where the meals
are being prepared by Indian cooks.
The meals are being sponsored by Rokpa, a Buddhist aid
organisation. Volunteers from Rokpa are
helping run the kitchen, which is also providing meals for the
poor and destitute. Last year’s soup kitchen was at the
Kalachakra Ground but this year it is being prepared for His
Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit in January 2010, so the soup
kitchen has been relocated to the tourist bungalow complex.
