Karma’s story

Dr Karma Chungdag (Chin. Med.) began life a world away from his adopted home of Australia, in the great high land of Tibet.

As the eighth youngest of ten children, Karma was recognised at a young age as having a gift for healing. Even as a small boy he would travel with his mother, the local midwife and spiritual Ama, to help her deliver babies.

As a teenager, an opportunity arose for him to attend a specialist medical school in Lhasa, where he spent several years training as a local doctor, learning the fundamentals of Western, Chinese, and Tibetan medicine. He was also selected among his classmates for special training in acupuncture, with which he discovered a special affinity.

Karma spent part of his time out in the villages and mountains taking care of his regional community, often riding on horseback to visit remote nomad families. The rest of his time he spent based at a hospital in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. Karma developed a love of caring for the people around him. He became a well respected member of his community.

During these years Karma was also taken under the tutelage of a highly regarded lama (senior Buddhist monk) from whom he learned Tibetan astrology and other philosophical elements of Tibetan Buddhism.

As time passed, Karma wished to learn more about medicine. However, opportunities for advancement for Tibetans were scarce. He also held a deep longing, as do most if not all Tibetans, to see his spiritual father, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who resides in exile in India.  So, like many Tibetans before him, he set off on the arduous 21-day journey across the Himalayas to India in search of opportunity.

India

The reality of Indian life was a far cry from the way it is perceived in Tibet as a ‘land of milk and honey’. Karma found himself far from home in a community of exile Tibetans who often had to struggle to get by. He was a curiosity, since few Tibetans in professions such as his who had worked for the Chinese government had come into exile. He agreed to a request from a radio station to be interviewed about his experience working as a doctor in Tibet. This interview was broadcast into Tibet, bringing unwanted attention to his family and making it difficult to return home.

He remained in exile in India for more than a decade, living in Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills. During this time he continued to practice acupuncture, and furthered his studies in alternative medicine, becoming a Reiki master and gaining a deeper understanding of Buddhist philosophy, this time under the guidance of the highly regarded master, Khamtrul Rinpoche. He also studied English, and went on to work professionally as a translator.

Australia

Karma eventually met and married his Australian wife. In 2009 the couple relocated to Adelaide, Australia.

In Adelaide Karma was finally able to fulfil his long-held dream of undertaking further tertiary studies in Chinese Medicine, completing a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Acupuncture).

Today he practices his unique blend of acupuncture and therapeutic bodywork incorporating elements of Tibetan philosophy from his clinic in the beautiful Adelaide Hills town of Aldgate.

Post script: Return to Tibet

In 2013 Karma was finally able to visit Tibet again after 17 years in exile. He was welcomed back into his community with great warmth, and before long villagers were queueing up for treatment for various ailments.

One day Karma and his family set off for a day trip to a temple on a mountaintop at the end of an isolated valley. The drive was cut short by a flooded road, so the day trippers decided to picnic on the spot then walk over to visit a nomad camp that was visible across the valley.

When the party reached the black yak-wool tent of one nomad family, Karma received a surprisingly hearty welcome. The father of the family had recognised him as the doctor that had come to take care of his mother some twenty years earlier. It was a remarkable reunion, and wonderful moment of life coming full circle.