Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/SPECIALISTS)

Based on oral transmission rather than written sources and texts, the institution of folk healers or medlgch is eclectic, syncretic, and open to new ideas and healing rituals. This can even be seen in the naming of medlgch. One and the same healer can be addressed differently by different patients. For example, Valentina is a Kalmyk woman known for being a medlgch. Like many others in her position, she is also known by other names, such as syakuste 'the one who is protected by Buddhist gods', emch 'doctor', otch ‘bone-setter’, and eeldech or belgch 'the one who foretells the future', because she has a guardian deity and can, among other abilities, cure illnesses, set bones, and see into the future. In contrast to the term medlgch, the terms emch, otch, syakuste, belgch, and eeldech do not, as a rule, denote separate categories, but are used more widely as adjective-nouns. So people who come to see Valentina to ask for divination may describe her as eeldech or belgch; those who revere her curing abilities may characterize her as emch; those who ask for bone-setting procedures call her otch, and those who appeal to her supernatural powers may call her syakuste. As a medlgch, 'the one who knows', Valentina happens to know and fulfil all these roles. She prefers to describe herself either as syakuste 'the one who is protected by Buddhist gods', or emch 'doctor', although she does not mind being referred to by others as medlgch. It has to be emphasized, however, that not all medlgch healers, even at the height of their careers, are equally powerful, having varying degrees of experience, skills, and expertise, which is reflected in their naming.

With regard to Buddhist doctors, being educated in proper monasteries in India, Mongolia, and Buryatia, they are specialists in Tibetan medicine and are usually attached to temples, the most famous being the Central Temple in Elista.