Healing the Dotasha way

In a hamlet of Paro, a farmer soaks you in medicinal water heated with red-hot stones. Our reporter Jigme Wangchuk goes there to find out what it means

The Nyemji village in Paro is spread under the imposing gaze of the towering ruins of the 17th century Drukgyel Dzong. As the village wakes up to a cold mid-December morning, plumes of smoke rise from almost all the traditional houses. At the lowest end of the village, in the hamlet of Dotasha, thick smoke curls up from a makeshift shade. That’s where Aum Kencho Dem burns melon-size stones red-hot.

A bumpy and tortuous dirt road bifurcating from the Drukgyel road near Drukgyel Higher Secondary School meanders down, below Aum Kencho Dem’s shade.

A few metres up the dusty path, a crystal spring from a slender wooden conduit hits a large stone slab beneath, splitting into a hundred little diamonds. In a small waa (wooden trough) by the side, planted in the ground to the rims, a young boy called Chencho sits submersed neck deep, flushed and perspiring. At some distance, he’s kept a fire going heating a dozen stones continuously.

Chencho gently lowers the hot stones into the waa, from time to time, to keep the water hot. The water is believed to have healing properties. He dips into the menchu (medicinal bath) once a day, mostly in the evening, after a hard day’s labour on the farm.

The spring water is said to have been favoured by Paro Penlop Kushu Tshering Penjor for its healing properties. Hot-stone bath is a popular form of medication in Bhutan. The origin of this timeworn practice of drawing minerals from water and stones to heal illnesses, though, cannot be traced.

Down in the field, below the farmhouse, a dark figure is busy prowling, browsing in the dirt. The broadening frame, as it gets closer, is a woman burning the stones red-hot in the fire. Aum Kencho Dem, 45, has the spring water stored in a mid-size Syntax container, brought in through a long polythene pipe across the field. She has put up a tumbledown shade under which she has fire going and hot stones ready.

On the other side, under the shade looped by a wall of bamboo mats and cloth pieces, a woman and four little girls are sitting in two 4.5 feet by 2.5 feet waa. Chimi Tshomo from Lhuentse, who lives in Paro, has brought her family for a hot-stone bath at Aum Kencho’s.

Aum Kencho says between 10 and 15 people come to her bath every day. She charges Nu 300 a waa for five hours of soaking in the hot water. Most people cannot soak for five hours at a stretch, says Aum Kencho, who plans to expand her business.

As the fire blazes heating the stones, Aum Kencho hits a big stone with a huge sledgehammer and breaks it into two. She is expanding the space for the increasing number of people visiting the menchu. She juggles two punishing jobs – keeping the current business going and expanding it – singlehandedly. A few metres beside the shade, she has measured space enough for four new waa. Once they are in place, 12 people could bathe at a time. And right next to it, Aum Kencho is building a house for the visitors who decide to stay for days.

Currently, she keeps overnighters on the ground floor of her house. “But it is proving difficult with a large number of visitors coming every day,” she says, wiping the sweat off her brow and grinning, spitting red betel juice. “Of course, they don’t have to pay extra for accommodation. The price is all-inclusive.”

Hot-stone bath is believed to heal ailments like joint pains, hypertension, stomach disorder, arthritis and many minor diseases. In the olden times, hot-stone bath was a luxury enjoyed by a few. A whole day was spent setting up the bath and burning stones. “Even tuberculosis can be cured by this water,” says Aum Kencho.  “Hot stone bath is said to have no side effects. It is in its pure, natural form.”

In little less than an hour, Chimi Tshomo gets out of the waa, fuming and red. She has hypertension. “I have heard this water has curative properties that can cure many diseases. I have come to try it out,” she says, drying her hair in the sun. “I can already feel good. If I get better, I intend to bring my family here every weekend.”

Aum Kencho started the hot-stone bath with the menchu in 2007.  Since then, she has kept count of more than 4,000 people who have visited the menchu. She makes a profit of Nu 10,000 monthly. She says people come to the menchu from as far as Gelephu, Trashigang and Samdrupjongkhar.

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