History tells us that Lord Buddha had given the 1^stKalachakra Tantric Initiation at Amaravati. This January, about 2500 years later, His Holiness the 14^thDalai Lama gave his 30^thKalachakra Initiation at the very same holy place. In the process Kalachakra or the wheel of time turned full circle and it finally reached where it began. So this Kalachakra was special in two ways, the special venue and the special timing as it served to commemorate the 2550^th anniversary of Lord Buddha.

Kalachakra, considered by many as the most sacred Buddhist Initiation cum prayer gathering has always attracted large congregation of devotees. This time over 100,000 people from all parts of the world had assembled at Amaravati. In view of such a large gathering basic health issues including water, sanitation and medical facilities had assumed primary importance. Andhra Pradesh state government had been more than generous in making adequate arrangements for water, sanitation and medical facilities which were elaborate and comprehensive. The over-all support and assistance from the state government was unprecedented. The Department of Health of CTA also shouldered the huge responsibility of looking after the well-being and health concerns of such a huge gathering of devotees.

The DoH had constituted a 28 member strong team for the Kalachakra headed by the Honorable Health Secretary Tenpa C. Samkhar. The team included Dr Tsetan Dorjee from the Delek Hospital, five staff from the DoH, Head office,five medical Doctors, eleven nursing staff, three drivers, one Pharmacist and an assistant. Equal emphasis was laid on preventive and curative health services. Health education was given primary importance and therefore, a separate information booth was established near the venue of the Kalachakra Initiation. This booth contained thousands of pamphlets on various health care issues as varied as Hygiene, Upper Respiratory Infections, Diarrhoeal diseases, Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Hypertension, Diabetes etc. in both Tibetan and English. All these educational pamphlets were distributed free of cost and were most enthusiastically lapped up by the public.

The DoH also established a special medical camp near the Kalachakra Venue, which functioned from 1^stto 17^thJan 2006. This medical camp offered free out patient consultation services as well as round the clock emergency medical services. Everything was free of cost including the consultation, services and medicines. Everyday the out patient services began at 8 a.m. and the physicians struggled with unending queue of patients and it stretched up to 5.00 p.m. daily. The camp also had five beds for severe patients who required close observation and more intensive treatment. Apart from these it also had a small treatment section where nursing staff did endless number of dressings, injections and minor procedures. A make shift pharmacy was there which stored the necessary medicines.

Common health problems that we came across were upper respiratory tract infections, common cold, diarrhoeal diseases, dysentery and dermatological problems. In, particular the new comers from Tibet, which constituted a huge number, were prone to insect bites and other wounds. Other uncommon but more serious health problems that we encountered included Malaria, Pneumonia, accident fractures, heart problems, uncontrolled diabetes and cerebra vascular stroke. Few Psychotic patients were also reported. Every day the number of out patients varied from 500 to 800 and in all more than 10,000 patients were treated effectively.

The medical camp also sent a Doctor and a nurse with an ambulance every day to the Tibetan Reception Centre for new comers from Tibet. The team at the reception centre faced a huge problem in communicating with the patients there as they were from different parts of Tibet and many spoke in their regional dialect only. Nevertheless hundreds of patients turned by every day.

The DoH also provided referral services of more serious patients to the community health centre at Amravati and to the Government Medical College hospital at Guntur. The state goverment had opened up special Kalachakra wards at both these hospitals and all the treatment done there were free of cost. The Honorable Health Secretary Tenpa C. Samkhar assisted by Dr Tsetan Dorjee competently and smoothly supervised the functioning of the massive medical camp. They also had frequent meetings with the District health officials and superintendents of hospitals which resulted into better co-ordination and collaboration between the DoH special medical camp and the local health facilities.

Due to good quality of medical care and referral services the number of patients that we lost during the entire Kalachakra period was only five. This we feel could very well be termed as the success of the Kalachakra health care system, which was a collective effort of the Department of Health, CTA and the State Goverment of Andhra Pradesh. We owe a deep sense of gratitude to all the health officials, Doctors and nurses of the state government health facilities who worked relentlessly and played significant part in making this health care programme during Kalachakra a grand success.

The special medical camp organized by the Tibetan Medical and Astro. Institute, Dharamsala also put up an excellent public health care services during the Kalachakra Initiation at Amaravati.

Dr. Tsering Dhondup is the Medical Officer at TsoJhe hospital, Bylakuppe