Project

Plant preservation efforts (continued)
Bio-diversity
Replanting sites should ideally have the same characteristics as the original habitat. In traditional Tibetan medical texts, the side of the mountain, altitude, climatic condition, soil composition, etc. are mentioned. However it must be obvious that plantation sites on the lower Himalayan slopes or on the Indian plains are hardly going to replicate the high altitude environments of many plants used in Tibetan medicine. An additional problem is that when grown in a different climate, certain species will not have the desired quality or power to be used in medicine.

Such research into bio-diversity as had already been carried out should be carefully studied, and further observations made. The CTMI is not currently able to carry out a full-scale academic study itself, but observations by the teachers and pharmacists are highly valuable.

In the meantime, botanical gardens and other herberia, along with seed banks and photographic reports should be developed.

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