Padma Gurmet Gets Wellness Visionary Award for Sowa-Rigpa

Dr Padma Gurmet, Director of the National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa (NISR) at Leh, has been given the Wellness Visionary Award for Holistic Healing. The honour came from Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU), Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh, in recognition of his work in traditional medicine and holistic health care. The institute he heads works under the Ministry of Ayush.

Where the award was given

The award was presented at the 3rd International Conference on Wellness, held at the university from 30 October to 1 November 2026. The three-day conference was inaugurated by Satish Mahana, Speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, before an audience of health professionals, academics and people from the health care industry. In all, 42 health professionals from across the country were honoured at the conference for their work in their own fields.

The lecture on Sowa-Rigpa

Dr Gurmet also spoke at the conference as a distinguished speaker, with a technical lecture on the significance of Sowa-Rigpa for health and wellness in the Himalayan regions. He set out how this traditional system of medicine helps keep people well in the high mountains, where climate and distance shape what medical care can reach a village.

Why Sowa-Rigpa matters

• Sowa-Rigpa is a traditional system of medicine practised in the Himalayan belt, and the National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa at Leh is the national institute dedicated to it.
• The conference gave the system an international platform, and participants took a close interest in its fundamental principles, theories and practices.
• The organisers read that interest as a sign of the wider attention traditional systems of medicine are drawing for their part in holistic health care.
• The award is being read as recognition of the effort to take Sowa-Rigpa to a wider audience and win it broader acceptance.

For examination purposes the pairing to remember is the person, the institute and the place: Dr Padma Gurmet, the National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa, and Leh, with the award itself coming from a university in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The system of medicine, the Himalayan setting and the Ayush connection are the other points on which questions are usually set.