If Kaliwen Zhamusu stares a little too long, pushes his face towards you and takes a deep sniff, do not rush for your deodorant: he is just doing what all Tibetan doctors do.
''To be a good doctor you need to do four things, examine the face, smell, ask questions and take the pulse. From these four you can tell what's wrong,'' says that the Tibetan living Buddha and traditional doctor from china's inner Mongolia region. It sounds simple enough, but as Tibetan doctors spread their knowledge to China's cities, sensitive patients can be offended by too much olfactory attention.

''In Tibet everyone is used to Tibetan medicine,'' says doctor Labat Sirin of the Beijing Tibetan hospital.

''Patients in Beijing are more demanding. Some patients are suspicious of Tibetan medicine, so we have to spend time reassuring them,'' says the 29-year-old doctor, who swapped his home in rural Tibet for a tiny urban apartment when he arrived in April to spend one year at the hospital. Because of the supplementary benefits given to doctors, officials, engineers and other professionals who work in Tibet, Labat Sirin took a temporary cut in his monthly pay from $ 157 to $ 72. Yet he began treating patients with wealth that most tibetans can only dream of.

Most of the 10,000 patients a year who visit the private hospital are affluent locals who spend their own money on treatment that is not always cheap. Many Mongolians visit, and a Russian general is a regular.
''Many come for alternatives to conventional treatment after unsuccessful treatment by western or Chinese medicine'', Labat Sirin says.

Strongly influenced by Ayurvedic principles from India, Tibetan medicine sees the mind as the source of all being, good or bad. Its holistic methods examine behaviour, diet, pulse, and urine.
Treatment takes many forms including pills, infusions and mineral baths.

Bureau Report