A Dream Fulfilled in Dekyiling 

For a long time Martha Ma had a desire to help the community of Tibetan refugees living in exile in India. Having been forced to leave her homeland of El Salvador in 1980, Martha felt she shared a sense of loss with the refugees. After completing the Swedish Institute's Acupuncture Program in 2002, Martha celebrated her graduation by traveling to India to fulfill her dream.

She began the journey by contacting the director of the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project (TRHCP), Marsha Woolf, herself a licensed acupuncturist. After a lengthy interview process and written application, Martha was accepted as a volunteer and went to the Tibetan resettlement village of Dekyiling with Ms. Woolf.

"Dekyiling translated in English means "happiness," said Martha. "The village is a Tibetan community of about 1,500 people near the base of the Himalayan Mountains in northern India. It felt very different there from the southern parts of India where I had been in the past; the area is mountainous and given to extreme weather changes.

"I was traveling with Marsha Woolf, known affectionately by the Tibetans as 'Dr.' Marsha. She has been traveling annually to India for the past twenty-one years to help with health care, with an emphasis on bringing in acupuncture. The TRHCP also provides other health related help for the Tibetan community in exile, such as bringing donated medical supplies and purchasing sorely needed equipment.

"Our initial acupuncture sessions took place at Dekyiling Hospital. The entire hospital consists of two wards with three beds each, two offices, a dental room, a nurse's room, a lab and a delivery room. The head nurse, also a midwife, has personally delivered more than 4,000 babies. A Western doctor and dental technician are also on staff."

Martha and  Dr. Marsha provided acupuncture in the hospital lobby, where their Tibetan patients sat in a large, open space together. "The Tibetans are a community with a great sense of camaraderie, so they didn't mind sitting together as they waited, receiving treatments and watching each other while being needled," Martha reported. "In fact, they enjoyed receiving treatments together, talking and laughing the whole time."

A Full Schedule

The work was intense, with the two acupuncturists seeing 245 people between them in the span of six days. All of the patients had two sessions, which meant a total of 490 treatments. "Most of our patients were older people with signs and symptoms of Kidney Qi deficiency," said Martha. "They often complained of pain in their knees and backs. Dr.  Marsha feels that one of the contributing factors may be the amount of Tibetan tea the people consume. This tea contains a good amount of salty butter and milk, which help keep the body warm. However, according to principles of Chinese medicine, the body stores excess salt in the joints, which can lead to joint problems. Dr. Marsha also thinks this could be a common factor for the incidence of high blood pressure and strokes."

Martha and Dr. Marsha traveled to a nearby nunnery and a home for the elderly to provide acupuncture treatments for the monks and nuns there. "I found that the monks and nuns were more sensitive to needles than the general population, so we used much thinner needles," said Martha. "As with the rest of the population, we always included auricular (ear) acupuncture, along with full body acupuncture." Treatments usually were of a tonifying nature, according to Martha, who said she focused on supporting Lung energy (to help people deal with their unspoken grief) and Spleen energy (to help strengthen general health).

Martha also witnessed the great need for water purification in this area, where TRHCP helps by installing purification systems. Martha spent eight weeks in Dekyiling, then spent another four weeks in Southern India visiting sacred sites. 

When she returned from India, Martha started a private practice as an acupuncturist in Manhattan. She also supervises the clinic at Exponents, a non-profit organization that treats patients that are HIV positive. 

For more information

Find out more about the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project.

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