High Altitude Medical Herb Plantation

The value of the world's rich bio diversity has now been recognized. Many rare and special herbs and plants flourish in the high clean atmosphere around Tengboche. The expertise still exists to cultivate these and use them for medicines according to the traditional Tibetan system. Therefore, Tengboche encouraged the registration of the Sacred Land Initiative [Sacred Land.net] with the Ministry of Industry in Nepal. This company is now in operation and is recognized as one of the few important organisations preserving the knowledge about the production of Tibetan medicine. In Devoche a protection wall has been built encircling an area of about 2,500 sqm where the first test plantation of six different medicinal herbs has been undertaken. Near Thamo, at Techho land has been bought and a small pharmaceutical processing plant will be established. A qualified Tibetan doctor has been send by Tengboche Monastery to Namchhe Bazaar to provide treatment for visitors and the local community. In Techho a doctor from Tengboche specialised in Tibetan pharmacy is working to produce high quality medicine and incense. In addition, a curriculum has already been researched for the study of traditional Tibetan medicine. Some monks will receive basic medical training, enabling them to offer simple traditional treatment in the community. It is hoped that the nuns and inhabitants of Devoche and Thamo could be provided with employment and income generation possibilities by the production of high quality herbal medicines and therapeutic incenses.

Reforestation

The Sagarmatha National Park has banned the felling of trees within the park area. Very few large mature trees are cut anymore but deforestation around Tengboche is still very rapid. People cut the smaller trees or simply lop branches of the more mature ones, which is very difficult to control.

As one of the few remaining mature forest in the area there is a lot of pressure on the woods at Tengboche. In addition the forest is aging and dying. In Tengboche the lodges cut wood for cooking in order to cope with providing the large numbers of visitors with a full menu which is available all day. So do the surrounding villages, who have exhausted the forests closer to habitation. In addition, all lodges [including the National Park Lodge] use wood burning stoves to heat drafty dining rooms. Ironically now there is electricity tourists tend to stay up later, meaning more wood is burnt. Local people, porters, police and even the monastery cut wood from the forests around Tengboche.

Previously Tengboche owned the forest and has appealed to the Government to return control so it can revert to its old status as a protected Sacred Forest. It is also hoped to establish a nursery cultivating the trees most appropriate to the altitude and unique microclimate of Tengboche. A forester would be employed to manage the forest in a sustainable manner since it is impossible to ban the collection of wood.

Monastery Wall

Soil erosion in Tengboche has proved a major problem and so steps are being taken to manage the area more effectively. A series of small walls will divert the pack animals so they use a single trail on the far side of the area preventing them from wandering everywhere and creating the many small tracks that destroy grazing. Water also needs to be provided for the pack animals and Yak.

Trekkers by will be channelled along a single well-paved path. A new traditional gate will mark the monastic grounds and new monks accommodation will be part of a wall, which will separate the monastic activities from the tourist campsites. It is hoped this will help to prevent tourists disturbing the peace by wandering through the monastery behaving in inappropriate ways.