LKHAGVAA
TRADITIONAL THERAPIST
I was born around the village of Erdenekhairkhan, Zavkhan Province, on the vast landscapes of the White Mountain, among beautiful waters, plants, large sand dunesand rocky formations. I am the 5th child of my family. My home region is amazing and very unique. Those who come here can be lost within the sand mountains, the hidden rivers under the sand, and the feelings the land convey. They are many surprises along the way! Waking up among this place let you breath the cleanest of air, and you can be amazed to see displayed the 4 seasons colors in one location. With the North made of sand, the South and its colorful flowers, green meadows and forests under the white frost, and birds chirping above the dark blue colors of the largest lakes, is there left another magical place to visit? Here, I have been raised as a nomad. This was my lifestyle until I went to school.
There is a Mongolian word “Gariig ni ganzagand khuliig ni duruund”, which is “making your hand close to the food and your feet close to the stirrup”, that means to make you to live by yourself, and it is really what we did. My parents chose to send my brothers and sisters to school to study and have a better life. After graduating from the Erdenekhairkhan village’s school, i spent an additional 2 years of my life to study at the center of Zavkhan Province, living together with my grandmother. After graduating, I was inspired by my sister Nansaa, she was a very good traditional medicine doctor. I was always close to the doctors. My mother’s sisters were all doctors, pharmacists or owners of drugstore. As a child, I used to help them. My grandmother loved to get massages and always rewarded me with candies. I visited her home especially knowing I would get new good candies! This might explain why I decided to study medicine.
There, I took therapy massage courses, and my very first client was Davka, the Director and horse riding tour leader of Gobi Mountain Lake. Through those massages, she helped me greatly to cover the costs of my student life. After the university, my career started with working for the Otgontenger hot-spring resort. Here everyone was busy and I was challenged as a new graduate, but it gave me a chance to learn new skills and to develop on other levels. I am thankful through those years to become a doctor, and teaching now at the Mongolian National University of Medicine in Ulaanbaatar, the Capital city.