A Doctor for Disease, a Shaman for the Soul

The New York Times ^ | 19 Sep 2009 | PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN

[BGHater]

The patient in Room 328 had diabetes and hypertension. But when Va Meng Lee, a Hmong shaman, began the healing process by looping a coiled thread around the patient’s wrist, Mr. Lee’s chief concern was summoning the ailing man’s runaway soul.

“Doctors are good at disease,” Mr. Lee said as he encircled the patient, Chang Teng Thao, a widower from Laos, in an invisible “protective shield” traced in the air with his finger. “The soul is the shaman’s responsibility.”

At Mercy Medical Center in Merced, where roughly four patients a day are Hmong from northern Laos, healing includes more than IV drips, syringes and blood glucose monitors. Because many Hmong rely on their spiritual beliefs to get them through illnesses, the hospital’s new Hmong shaman policy, the country’s first, formally recognizes the cultural role of traditional healers like Mr. Lee, inviting them to perform nine approved ceremonies in the hospital, including “soul calling” and chanting in a soft voice.

The policy and a novel training program to introduce shamans to the principles of Western medicine are part of a national movement to consider patients’ cultural beliefs and values when deciding their medical treatment. The approach is being adopted by dozens of medical institutions and clinics across the country that cater to immigrant, refugee and ethnic-minority populations.

Certified shamans, with their embroidered jackets and official badges, have the same unrestricted access to patients given to clergy members.

Shamans do not take insurance or other payment, although they have been known to accept a live chicken.

A CULTURAL APPROACH Va Meng Lee, a Hmong shaman, performs a ceremony intended to summon the runaway soul of Chang Teng Thao at Mercy Medical Center in Merced, Calif.

[Jack Hammer]

For the definitive work on Hmong healing and health methodologies, see: Cha, Dr. Dia; Hmong American Concepts of Health; Routledge, 2003.

[Ronin]

Seriesly, this is more than hugh, It's HMONGOUS!!!!

Thank you, thank you....

My work here is done.