Centre To Set Up National Institute Of Sowa-Rigpa At Leh

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi Government has cleared a proposal to set up the National Institute for Sowa-Rigpa (NISR) in Leh as an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of AYUSH on Wednesday.

The Union Cabinet, which met here on Wednesday, cleared the proposal, the first major decision for the newly created union territory.

Sowa-Rigpa is a traditional Tibetan system of medicine practised in the Himalayan belt of India. It has been originated in Tibet and popularly practiced in India, Nepal, Bhutan Mongolia and Russia. The majority of theory and practice of Sowa-Rigpa is similar to “Ayurveda”. It is popular in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal’s Darjeeling, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Aim of NISR

The Central government’s objective behind setting up of NISR is to provide an impetus to the revival of Sowa-Rigpa in the Indian sub-continent. The institute will also provide opportunities for students of the traditional medicinal system, not only in India but also from other countries.

According to an official statement, the NISR will be an autonomous National institute under Ministry of AYUSH with a mandate to undertake interdisciplinary education and research programmes in Sowa-Rigpa in collaboration with premier national and international institutes and facilitate the integration of different systems of medicine.

“After setting up of NISR, the synergy among the existing Sowa Rigpa Institutions – Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi and Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh, Union Territory of Ladakh, which are under the administrative control of Ministry of Culture and NISR, will be established,” the statement added.

This will facilitate quality education, scientific validation, quality control and standardisation and safety evaluation of Sowa-Rigpa products, standardised Sowa-Rigpa based tertiary health delivery and to promote interdisciplinary research and education of Sowa-Rigpa at undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral levels, it said.

The NISR would identify the best Sowa-Rigpa treatment — including their standard procedures — within the framework of traditional Sowa-Rigpa principle and possible co-relation with bio-molecular western medicine in providing health care facilities to the general public.