Traditional & Spiritual Healers

Dr. Yeshi Dhonden (born 1929, Tibet) is one of the most celebrated Tibetan physicians alive. He served as the personal physician to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama from 1961 to 1980 and is a recipient of the Padma Shri — India's fourth highest civilian honour — awarded for his contribution to traditional medicine. Trained from age six at the Chakpori Medical College in Lhasa and later at Chagpori Institute, he fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion and resettled in Dharamsala, where he helped found the Men-Tsee-Khang (Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute), now the premier institution of Sowa-Rigpa in the world. He became internationally famous after a landmark visit to Harvard Medical School in 1980, where he examined a hospitalised patient by pulse diagnosis alone — without charts, history, or X-rays — and gave a remarkably accurate description of her condition (a congenital heart defect with cardiac complications) that left the assembled physicians astonished. He was still seeing patients at his private clinic in Dharamsala into his late 90s, refusing to retire, insisting that as long as patients come, he will be there.

Hemchand Manjhi is a revered tribal healer from the dense sal and bamboo forests of Bastar, Chhattisgarh — one of the most biodiverse forest regions in India and the heartland of the Gondi tribal tradition of healing. Born into a lineage of hereditary Vaidyas (village healers), Hemchand learned his craft through decades of forest apprenticeship rather than formal schooling — a tradition where knowledge is transmitted orally and through direct practice across generations, not through books or institutions. The Bastar forest, home to over 600 documented medicinal plant species, is his dispensary. He is known across numerous villages as the healer people turn to when modern medicine has failed or is financially out of reach. His practice is rooted in the belief that every plant in the forest has a purpose and that illness is a message from the body, the ancestors, and the land — not simply a malfunction to be corrected. He does not charge fixed fees, accepting whatever a patient's family can offer, and has never turned away a patient for lack of payment.

Smt. Yanung Jamoh Lego (born 9 July 1963, Sika Tode village, East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh) is a Padma Shri awardee and one of India's most remarkable healers — a woman who holds both a formal agricultural science education and a living mastery of Adi tribal herbal medicine. She completed her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, and served as an Agriculture Inspector in the Government of Arunachal Pradesh from 1988 until her retirement in July 2023 — a career that gave her a scientific lens through which to understand the plants she had been healing with since childhood. Her healing journey began in 1981, inspired by her father — a respected folk healer of the Adi community — who passed down centuries-old knowledge of eastern Himalayan medicinal plants. Over more than four decades, she has treated over 10,000 patients suffering from life-threatening diseases including cancer, diabetes, and hypertension — many of whom came to her after losing hope in modern allopathic treatment. She does not run a commercial clinic; patients reach her through word of mouth across the northeast, and she has never turned anyone away. The Government of India recognised her extraordinary contribution with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour.

Sukhdeo Baiga is a hereditary Baidya — a tribal plant healer — from the dense sal and teak forests of Bastar. His knowledge was passed down orally through seven generations, beginning each apprenticeship at age ten with forest walks to learn the names, seasons, and preparation of over 400 medicinal plants. The Baiga and Gondi peoples of Bastar have maintained one of the most intact ethno-botanical knowledge systems in South Asia, largely because the region's geographical isolation preserved it from colonial disruption. Sukhdeo works without a clinic — patients travel to him, often from across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and he visits households when mobility is limited. He does not charge fixed fees, accepting whatever a family can give.

Tenzin Wangchuk is a fully qualified Amchi — a Tibetan traditional physician — trained at the Men-Tsee-Khang (Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute) in Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Sowa-Rigpa ('Science of Healing') is a 2,500-year-old medical system rooted in Buddhist philosophy, Indian Ayurveda, and the empirical observation of high-altitude Himalayan plants. It was formally recognised as a traditional medicine system by the Government of India in 2020. Tenzin completed a 7-year residential training including memorisation of the Gyüshi (Four Tantras — the foundational medical text), pulse diagnosis, urine analysis, and preparation of over 2,000 formulas. He now sees both Tibetan refugee patients and international visitors at his clinic in McLeod Ganj, often working alongside the Cancer Support Group at Delek Hospital.

Govindan Namboodiri comes from a Namboodiri Brahmin family with an unbroken lineage of Ayurvedic physicians stretching back twelve generations, documented in palm-leaf manuscripts kept at the family homestead. Kerala's Ayurvedic tradition differs from classical north Indian Ayurveda in its heavy emphasis on external therapies (keraleeya chikitsa), preparation of medicated oils (taila), and the integration of Kalaripayattu marma knowledge — the vital point system of the ancient Kerala martial art. Govindan completed formal training at the Ayurveda College, Thrissur, but credits the majority of his clinical wisdom to his grandfather, who treated patients under a mango tree using a formulary never published in any textbook.

Murugesan Siddhar trained in the classical Siddha tradition at the Government Siddha Medical College, Chennai, before completing a decade-long apprenticeship under a senior Siddhar practitioner near the Palani Murugan temple — one of the most revered sites in the Siddha tradition. Siddha medicine, developed by the 18 Siddhars (mystic sages), is one of the oldest medical systems in the world and is unique in its use of Kaya Kalpa — special preparations aimed at cell rejuvenation and extending the lifespan of the body. It incorporates mineral and metallic compounds (parpams) processed through elaborate purification techniques, alongside a vast materia medica of South Indian plants unavailable in northern traditions. Murugesan has treated over 6,000 patients over three decades, many referred after conventional medicine offered limited options.

Mata Savitri Devi has spent twenty-five years at the ashrams of Rishikesh working with seriously ill patients, initially as a volunteer at a local hospital and later establishing a small healing centre on the banks of the Ganges. She is a certified Grand Pranic Healer (MCKS Pranic Healing lineage) and a long-term practitioner of Kriya Yoga. Her approach is not religious in a sectarian sense — she works with patients from all backgrounds — but is grounded in the understanding that prana (life force energy) flows through the body's energetic anatomy and that disease represents a disruption in this flow that precedes physical manifestation. She makes no claims to cure cancer but has worked alongside oncology teams to support patients' psychological and spiritual wellbeing through diagnosis, treatment, and end of life.

Doña Rosa Contreras is a third-generation curandera from an indigenous Zapotec community in the mountains of Oaxaca. She was taught by her grandmother beginning at age eight — learning to identify, harvest, dry, and prepare over 300 medicinal plants of the Sierra Norte. Curanderismo is the traditional healing system of Mesoamerica, blending pre-Hispanic indigenous plant knowledge with elements of Spanish colonial medicine and Catholic devotion that arrived in the 16th century. It recognises illness as having physical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions — a disease cannot be healed in only one dimension. Doña Rosa holds ceremony monthly for community members with serious illness and travels to nearby villages on foot when patients cannot reach her.

Don Aurelio Jiménez is a Totonac herbalist from the vanilla-growing heartland of Veracruz, a region where tropical rainforest, cloud forest, and Gulf coastal plants converge to create one of the most biodiverse herbal pharmacopeias in the Americas. His practice blends Totonac indigenous plant knowledge with the Aztec medical tradition recorded in the 16th-century Badianus Manuscript — one of the earliest known medical herbals of the Americas. Unlike ceremonial curanderos, Don Aurelio is a specialist in the pharmacological dimension of plant medicine: he prepares tinctures, concentrated decoctions, and fermented plant preparations with methodical attention to timing, dose, and plant part. He corresponds regularly with researchers at the Universidad Veracruzana's ethnobotany department, who have documented several of his formulations.

Maestro Willy Panduro is a Shipibo-Konibo vegetalista (plant healer) from the Peruvian Amazon near Iquitos. The Shipibo are renowned internationally for their plant medicine tradition, which holds that all plants have spirits (doctores) that can be contacted through a period of dieta (isolation with a plant) and that these spirits teach healing icaros (healing songs) to the practitioner. Willy trained for twelve years in the jungle under his grandfather, completing diettas with dozens of master plants including Ayahuasca, Tobacco, Ajo Sacha, and Bobinsana. He now works with an established healing centre outside Iquitos and has hosted international cancer patients who come specifically seeking Amazonian plant medicine as a complement to conventional treatment or as a last resort. He is honest about what his tradition can and cannot do.

Nana Kwame Asante is a traditional healer from the Ashanti people of Ghana, trained in the lineage of his father and grandfather who served as community healers in a village outside Kumasi. His knowledge system encompasses the use of forest and savanna plants, animal products, minerals, and spiritual consultation with ancestors through the practice of Okomfo (divine consultation). He completed additional training through the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners (GHAFTRAM) and works in a peri-urban setting where patients often present after exhausting conventional options or are unable to afford hospital-based care. He is a vocal advocate for integration — he refers patients to hospital for diagnosis (particularly to confirm what he is dealing with) and asks to see pathology reports when available.