Himalayan News Service

Ramechhap, April 25:

Believe it or not, shamans in 12 VDCs of Ramechhap district are sending patients approaching them for cures to health centres instead. The shamans took this new turn after the Rural Health Development Project (RHDP) and the District Health Office (DHO) provided the shamans

training about health problems and modern medicine. Over 200 shamans of Deurali, Gothgaon, Mathali, Bhaluwajor, Pakarbas, Makadum and other VDCs attended the training.

The RHDP and DPO decided to impart training to the shamans after discovering that many people in remote villages were dying since they preferred to depend solely on shamans’ mantras and mumbo-jumbo treatment procedures. Post-training, the shamans have begun recommending that the patients visit health centres. To appease the supersititious, they do give them the traditional treatment before sending them off. Laxmi Thapa, a health worker at Tamakoshi Community Hospital, said even those patients in and around district headquarters who were afflicted with serious disease preferred to visit shamans because of the centuries-old belief in the efficacy of the shamans’ mantras.