Eighty-three-year-old Ran Bahadur Bohara of Baglung Municipality-1 has been practicing Ayurveda for the past 70 years.

Over the years, he has administered the traditional treatment on countless number of patients, including doctors and health workers.

What western medicines cannot treat, he says, Ayurveda can. The people who visit him on a regular basis come to him bearing the same belief. People from different parts of the country, including Kaski, Dhading, Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Bhairahawa, reach Bohara’s home at Ramrekha village, seeking cure for various health disorders, including cancer.

“His prescription doesn’t fail,” claims Ram Bahadur Shrestha, a gastritis patient from Dhading. “Ever since I started taking the herbal medicines that he prescribed, my condition has improved.”

Bohara prepares his own medicines using various herbs and roots. His medicines have been endorsed by the Dhaulagiri Ayurved Aushadhalaya. “Ayurvedic medicines don’t have side effects. It’s perfectly healthy and effective,” says Bohara.

He was introduced to the world of Ayurveda at a very young age by his father. He never went to school.

“I’ve spent my whole life doing this. Producing herbal medicines and treating people,” says Bohara, who also claims that he had never been to hospital all his life.

Bohara used to have a shop at Hallanchowk in Banapa VDC-2 in the past. But he had to close it down because he was too old to go to the shop everyday.

“The market of Ayurvedic medicines is very good. Yet, it has not gained a desirable market traction. We still need to promote it and teach the knowledge to the younger generation,” he says.