Diliram Sharma Neopany: an herbal practitioner from Aritar- Khamdong – (Part II)

Diliram Sharma Neopany said, in earlier days he used to regularly visit the forest and look for herbal plants but these days he has all the plants in his field. There was even a time when he used to ask for plants from Chiwabhanjyang, he said. He talked about a few names of the herbal plant that he had in his small field. Those plants included Hathjorra, Kaulo, Birray jhar, bhui champa, aleo vera and others that he used in his medicines. He has 31 herbal medicine used as powders that have to be eaten while 21 other herbal plants are used during the wrapping of the wounds.

According to this herbal practitioner, for a broken or fractured bone patient below 45 years it usually takes 18 to 28 days to be cured and for people above 50 years old it takes over one and half months. He shows his confidence and makes me believe that he had done this before. He made a more positive approach when he said that he had cured patients with intestine-related problems that do not need to be operated on at a hospital. The older the wound, the lesser the chances to be cured and he had treated old injured patients for up to 3 years. He feels happy when people say that they had been benefitted from my treatment.

He narrated to me a story of a patient who had fallen from a tee and had four broken bones from a rib cage and two more fractured. The patient was told to visit the hospital to take out the broken bones where the patient rang him up and told about his condition. Thereafter, Diliram Sharma Neopany called on the doctor and told him that he will cure the person in 28 days which the doctor was also taken off. The patient visited Sharma’s residence and for 18 days he was not allowed to move and his whole body was wrapped with herbal medicines.  

Thereafter, a little bit of walking exercise and after 28 days, Sharma himself took the patient to Kalimpong and did the X-ray. He was pleased to find that the patient had his broken rib cage treated without any operation. Today when he hears the patient say that he has been doing all village work without any difficulty, Sharma finds himself satisfied.

Interestingly, there are moments when some of the cases seem very difficult to handle and he does discuss them with his other fellow herbal practitioner friends. Neopany says, he is not into financial earning from his so-called passion. It was his interest, he chose this social work and he is happy in it.  His only concern lies that how much will he survive, he just wants to share his knowledge with a person interested.

Subash Dahal, President Nav Jagriti Sangh, the local NGO from the village believe Diliram Sharma Neopany is an asset to the village and to the state. We had been supporting him for a long time and when we are very proud of him and his work. When we see people related to ligament and bone problems visiting him and saving their money from visiting far-off places, we believe it is more of a societal assist. Whenever we do a census, we include his name as local Baidhya. We hope one day some sector from the government will come forward and help him in a better way, Dahal went on to say.