The Taiwanese doctor who pays to treat his Tibetan patients

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-08-25

Yang Chun-yuan, the first doctor to visit Taxiusi, July 4. (Photo/Hsu Wei-heng)

Yang offering medical services, July 22.
(Photo courtesy of Motif Press)

Know as Dr. Yang in Taitung and Manba Yang in Taxiusi, Taiwanese psychiatrist Yang Chun-yuan has devoted every summer in the Tibetan village to offering humanitarian medical and educational services since 2006.

Yang, 39, has visited the Tibetan village eight times within the past nine years. Without external funds and aid and never deterred by his altitude sickness, Yang empties his own savings every summer on medical supplies and airplane tickets to a village that barely exists online.

In the Tibetan language, Manba literally means "doctor." The doctor, as the village residents call him, did not end up in Taxiusi by accident.

Born in poverty, Yang had to witness his diabetic father suffer amputation, blindness, and dialysis while his mother ran a noodle shop and struggled to pay the medical bills and tuition fees. After finding out that a doctor earns more money and determined to help his parents, Yang gave up the normal university track and the promise of a steady job to fight his way through medical college on part-time jobs and scholarships, eventually becoming a psychiatrist.

The year Yang became a psychiatrist, he was asked by Khentrul Rinpoche to accompany the Tibetan tulku to Taxiusi village, located at the altitude of 4,500 meters and with an average temperature of -7 degrees centigrade. Knowing his altitude sickness, Yang declined. He regretted the decision soon and accompanied Khentrul Rinpoche to Taxiusi the next year, carrying 80 kilograms of medicine with him. The tortuous journey fueled by the altitude sickness almost killed Yang, yet the moment he arrived Taxiusi, his home in the tulku's words, Yang found himself recovered and reluctant to leave the village, where a winter is capable of killing a third of the population.

The next year Yang arrived at Taxiusi with 150 kilograms of medicine. Each year he carries more, as much as he can afford and physically lug. He takes care of 300 patients a day during his one month stay each year, an act that has cost him at least US$529,600 over the night years.

The medicine from Yang staves off the bite of Taxiusi's 8-month winter. Yang, however, was worried that one month was far from sufficient for the medical needs of the villagers. He finally came to the idea to train the local monks and let them distribute the medicine regularly so as to avoid abuse.

A medical system, however simple, is already an achievement, but Yang did not stop there. Invited again by Khentrul Rinpoche, he started raising funds for a school. His childhood poverty spurred him to push through in raising the funds. Yang's mother, who could not study due to poverty, gave him full support by donating her life savings.

Yang's life journey in the medical service used to a lonely and jarring ride. The huge medical costs forced him to give up his own material desires and make do without a car and smartphone in Taiwan. He is mocked and misunderstood now and then for being foolish. With his perseverance, Yang has turned most of his naysayers into his financial supporters.

The medical and educational systems have now become as the Taiwan Fund for Karma, which draws people and volunteers to Taxiusi. Yang is neither satisfied nor proud. Knowing that the villagers are waiting for Manba Yang, he will start the torturous 5-day journey for the eighth time soon.