OBOS Transformed Worldwide: Tibetan Edition

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

The following is the English translation of the preface from the Tibetan edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

This book has been made possible by the commitment and determined effort of many different people.  It was written to fill a perceived vacuum - a lack of easily accessible information for Tibetan women on their bodies and related health issues. We hope that it will empower Tibetan women by helping them understand how their bodies work, how better to look after their own health, how to recognise symptoms of common gynaecological problems, and by giving details of common medical treatments available.

The book was developed under the auspices of the Tibetan Nuns Project, based at Dolma Ling Nunnery, Sidhpur, Himachal Pradesh, and its development was managed by the Co-Directors of the Tibetan Nuns Project, Dr Elizabeth Napper and the Ven. Lobsang Dechen.

The project was initiated by Marlies Bosch who not only organised the funding for the project but also produced the first draft of a health book for women based on the American publication "Our Bodies, Ourselves" and took photographs especially for use in the book.

The first draft was then edited, revised and extended by Josephine Gibson.
Tsering Lhamo, at that time working for the Tibetan Government in Exile Department of Health, provided advice and valuable input on local conditions, health problems and treatments available. Anie Greig, nurse and midwife, provided  helpful comments. Sally Whelan and others at “Our Bodies Ourselves” and Marlies Bosch  read the English manuscript and provided  useful comments and refinements, which were then incorporated into the text.

The book was translated into Tibetan by Karma Dorje. This was an immense task as many English medical terms and concepts do not have a direct correlation in Tibetan.  It was Doctor Qusar Namgyal  who provided expert knowledge of medical words and technical terms in Tibetan. During the translation process there were frequent meetings between Karma Dorje, Tsering Lhamo and Josephine Gibson to  discuss the translation and iron out any difficulties. The Tibetan was further checked  by Wangdu Tsering.

Nyima-la volunteered his services to do the layout for publication of the Tibetan text, this included  spending countless hours preparing the illustrations.

Finally, we would like to express our immense gratitude to the Global Fund for Women whose sponsorship made this book possible.

We hope that this book will be of benefit to all Tibetan speaking women.

We dedicate any merit gained from this project to the long life of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, whose boundless love and compassion towards his people and to all suffering sentient beings is a constant inspiration.

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