"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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