XINING, Qinghai Province:
Arura Group, a Tibetan medicine company headquartered in Xining, capital of
Northwest China's Qinghai Province, pays great attention to preserving and
developing traditional Tibetan medicine and culture.
"The environmental protection, medical services and education, the medical
materials and resources research, development and protection and our research in
to the history of Tibetan medicine are all non-profit activities and we make
every effort to preserve and develop Tibetan medicine, which has a history of
more than 4,000 years," said Dhondup Drotsang, general manager of Arura Tibetan
Medicine Co Ltd.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the Roof of the World, has an average
altitude over 4,000 metres. It is rich in non-polluted natural medicine
resources, which have special characters and can be particularly effective in
treating certain ailments.
For centuries Tibetan medicine has not only been used by Tibetans, but also
spread across the Middle East and even as far as Europe, according to Yongdrol K
Tsangkha, an expert on Tibetan medicine and professor at Lanzhou University.
Tibetan medicine has particular effectiveness in its treatment of chronic
diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular problems, arthritis,
hepatitis, ulcers, liver and gallbladder problems, chronic digestive problems,
rheumatism, gynecological problems, anxiety and ailments connected with the
nervous system, the expert said.
In order to preserve and develop the traditional Tibetan medicine, Arura
Group was established in 1999 with the approval of Qinghai provincial
government. The group is based in the Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Hospital, Qinghai
Tibetan Medicine Research Institute and Tibetan Medicine school, according to
its Chairman Ao Tsochen.
As a Tibetan medicine firm, Arura should be able to make a profit by
preserving and developing traditional Tibetan medicine resources, Ao said.
With the idea, Ao led a group of some 20 Tibetan medicine experts over more
than 40,000 kilometres to Tibet, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and Qinghai provinces
and autonomous regions to collect some 600 ancient Tibetan medicine books
scattered among local people.
"We have compiled and published more than 100 of the ancient Tibetan medicine
books we collected, and all these valuable documents have greatly enhanced the
range of medicines we can produce, as well as the quality of our medical
services, education and research," the chairman said.
And in order to protect Tibetan medicine resources and the area's natural
environment, Arura has created four natural reserves in the main medicine
material areas in Qinghai, planting herbs needed for the medicines, said
Dhondup.
"We have also stopped using materials extracted from wild animals and found
substitutes for them," the medicine general manager said. As the major
profitable enterprise in Arura Group, Arura Tibetan Medicine Co Ltd built a
modern factory in 2004, with an investment of 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million).
Today the works produces 74 different high-quality Tibetan medicines, said
Dhondup.
Scientific management, the introduction of high technology as well as the
preservation of Tibetan medicine have allowed Arura to reap rich profits, and
the firm has grown to become a large scale ethnic medicine enterprise with
assets totaling some 500 million yuan (US$62.5 million).
The rapid development has spurred the firm's efforts to protect and preserve
Tibetan medicine and culture, the manager said.
On September 9, the China Tibetan Medicine and Cultural Museum, the only such
museum in the world, built by Arura with an investment of 120 million yuan
(US$15 million), officially opened to the public in the capital city Xining.
"In seven exhibition halls, with a total floor area of 12,000 square meters,
more than 2,000 animal and plant specimens and some 1,000 ancient Tibetan
medical books and documents are displayed, together with displays on Tibetan
medicine experts' achievements, educational materials and ancient Tibetan
medical instruments," Dhondup said.
(China Daily 10/12/2006 page10)
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