The Tibetan Physician - Dr Dolkar

In 1981, HH Priya Nathji invited a Tibetan doctor to seek cure for Shri Nathji’s cancer. Since the science of allopathy and homeopathy had little to offer in terms of cancer treatment, HH Priya Nath began exploring other systems of medicine and was drawn towards the Tibetan doctors who had gained fame in the country. One amongst them was a Dr. Lobsang of Dharamsala. However since she lived in Dharamsala and was not available, her daughter, Dr. Dolkar, who lived in Delhi, was contacted by HH Priya Nath, and she agreed to come to the house and see Shri Nathji.

She examined Shri Nathji’s pulse and then said with a great degree of certainty:

“His pulse does not show any cancer!”

Her words were like heavenly music to the ears of Priya Nath. Both, Shri Nathji and Priya Nath thanked her for her diagnosis. She was totally overwhelmed by Shri Nathji’s loving personality, and left, promising to bring her mother the next time.

Later Shri Nathji was to say about her:

“She appears to have been like an angel sent from Heaven.”

Indeed, her words gave tremendous consolation to Priya Nath. It was only for his sake that the doctor had been miraculously brought on the scene by Shri Nathji.

HH Priya Nath had often observed that whenever he was in acute distress and desperately needed consolation, some person would appear on the scene and tell him exactly what he wanted to hear. He knew this was Shri Nathji’s miracle.
Later, Shri Nathji and HH Priya Nath go to visit the Tibetan Medical Centre at Safdarjang Enclave, where Dr. Dolkar, the daughter of Dr. Lobsang Dolma of Dharamsala greets them, and is pleasantly surprised on seeing Shri Nathji.
“He is looking healthier than me!” she says with delight, even as she explains how to take the medicines prescribed by her mother.
Shri Nathji gives a brief discourse before leaving:
“Man cannot enjoy material prosperity without peace. Even if a man has a palace of gold he cannot enjoy it if its foundation is being shaken by an earthquake! But if a man of God is sitting there and says the jerks will come, but the palace will not fall, then there is no fear and the jerks become of no consequence!

Dr Dolkar (Whose Photo is shown on the right) is the first Tibetan physician of Delhi. She has an illustrious heritage - there have been physicians in her family for three centuries!  Her mother - the late Dr Lobsang Dolma Khangkar - is often referred to as the 'Mother of Tibetan Medicine'. Between 1972 and 1978, Dolma was the Chief Medical Officer to the Dalai Lama and his government in exile at the Tibetan Institute of Medicine and Astrology (TIMA) in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. In fact, she paved the way for future generations of Tibetan women to become physicians.

Dolkar was born in Skyid-gron, southern Tibet, but fled the country via Nepal and into India with her mother after the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1959. It was a journey she barely remembers, but it was a forced exodus that cost the lives of her two elder brothers.

Dr. Dolkar began her intense training in medicine under her mother from the age of 12. Her formal study was at Tibetan Institute of Medicine and Astrology between 1972 and '78.

Dolkar learned about pulse reading, urine analysis, the identification of hundreds of medicinal plants, herbs and minerals used in compounding Tibetan medicines, pharmacology, astrology and worked in her mother's practice from 1978 until 1981. After this internship, she established her own clinic in Delhi on the advice of a junior tutor to the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan medicine, which pre-dates the seventh-century arrival of Buddhism to Tibet, bases itself on using herbs and minerals to make pills and powders to treat patients. Physicians carry out a physical examination of the patient, but also consider the patient's lifestyle and environment and actions that she may have carried out in her past lives and in her current life.

She opened a clinic in the Indian capital in 1981. It is the same year she met Shri Nathji. As with all others who came in contact with Shri Nathji, her medical practice flourished and she is now considered an authority in Tibetan Medicine, throughout the world. Today, at the Dolkar Herbal Medicine Clinic at D-10, Kalkaji,  south Delhi, she attends to patients, six days a week, with the help of a seven-member staff. She also treats patients in Mumbai and Hyderabad by email, and visits each of the two cities every second month. One can seek appointment with her on Phone on the following numbers - (91) 011-26468451 & 51601519.