Panchakarma at a Nepalese Yoga & Ayurveda Center
Tales of getting towel-dried, detoxing from caffeine, and the best massages of my life.
In 2023, my friend Paisley was touring through Asia. We had bonded over our shared love for the outdoors and yoga, and I found her sense of adventure truly inspiring. “Do you want to go trekking in Nepal?” she’d ask. This question felt absurd. I’d never even thought of myself as the kind of person who went to other countries to hike.
Hiking up to Tilicho Lake in the Manang district of Nepal- one of the highest lakes in the world at 16,138 ft. Cold and dry conditions are aggravating to Vata.
The night before I checked into my first Vipassana, I received an email stating that flights from Salt Lake City to Kathmandu were the lowest they’d been. On a whim, I booked my flight.
When I first said “yes!” to going to Nepal, I was going to trek. I was going to Nepal to hike in the Himalayas!
Later, I realized I’d also be in the country where the Buddha was born- a country with a rich spiritual heritage and connection to the divine, and where Eastern medicine reigned supreme. I knew I needed to take some time for a Panchakarma or Yoga Retreat while I was there. After a few weeks on the Annapurna Circuit Trail and lounging around Pokhara with my best friend Paisley, I chose a Panchakarma Center in Kathmandu to detoxify and learn more about Ayurveda.
The center describes the Panchakarma “Two-week Ayurveda and yoga detox class is based in Pancha Karma which is the holistic package of Ayurveda to achieve good health. It includes Ayurvedic massage with herbal oils, herbal steam baths, yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation.”
In Sanskrit, ‘Pancha’ means five, and ‘Karma’ means action or treatment. The five main therapies used in Panchakarma are Vamana (therapeutic vomiting), Virechana (therapeutic purgation), B/Vasti (therapeutic enema), Nasya (Nasal administration), and Raktamokshana (bloodletting). Ayurveda works to create balance in the body- most of the therapies are quite simple like yoga, meditation, and spending time in nature. Panchakarma is used as a detox, and can be quite rigorous depending on your imbalance.
Yoga Home’s course outline of fourteen nights and fifteen days (I did not receive all of these therapies):
Rejuvenation of Agni (Dipana, Paachana)
Oleation therapy (Snehanam)
Sudation therapy (Sweating)
Medicinal Vomiting (Vamana)
Medicinal Purgation (Virechana)
Medicinal Enema (Vasti)
Nasal Insufflation (Nasya)
Leech therapy (Jalaukaavachaarana)
Shirodhara (continuous pouring of warm medicated oil on the forehead)”
A full Panchakarma is typically longer than two weeks, but I took the opportunity. This two-week experience cost me about $1500USD (food, lodging, daily yoga, meditation, and ayurvedic services).
Transitioning from Trekking to Detoxing
Paisley had other plans, so we hugged goodbye as I headed back to Kathmandu. The bus ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu is reported to take 7 hours, but my experience took closer to 12 hours- the roads through Nepal can be really bad. Upon arriving at chaotic Thamal (the epicenter for trekkers in Nepal), I got my belongings that I had left behind in Kathmandu while trekking for 3 weeks. It feels like a miracle that I was able to navigate back to Kathmandu, get my belongings, and get myself to the retreat center in a foreign country. Thank you, universe, for having my back!
At times, Nepal was really difficult for me. Walking over a hundred miles through the Himalayas was easy- it was the noise and commotion that I struggled it. Thamal in Kathmandu was loud and busy. It was a lot for me to take in as a single female traveler. Just a couple of months before arriving in Nepal, I had completed a 10-day Vipassana Silent Meditation Retreat, which had left me feeling calm and in control. Arriving in Nepal was over-stimulating and a test to my meditation practice. (Upon leaving Nepal I realized how much tolerance for commotion I now have. I’m so grateful for this time when I felt tested- America feels (mostly) easy for me)
One tell-tale sign for me that I’m unwell is my skin (see photos). I uphold high standards for my diet and routine because my skin is the first place I show inflammation, redness, and acne. My skin upon arrival at Yoga Home was INFLAMMED. While trekking, I had eaten food at the teahouses, which was high in carbohydrates and gluten. Fine for trekking- I needed the energy- but now I was paying for it.
I met with an Ayurvedic doctor who told me my Vata was imbalanced (likely due to high altitude and travel). Because of this, we were going to focus on Vasti, or enemas, for the 2 weeks. This also dictated my diet- food was served buffet style for everyone in Yoga Home, but I was to avoid any tofu or tomatoes. No coffee was served, which at the time, I hadn’t taken a break from since I had started drinking it a decade prior. I don’t know if it was the horrific travel day the day before, dehydration, or the coffee detox, but I felt so terrible for a few days that after I detoxed from caffeine in Panchakarma, I’ve never gone back to drinking caffeine full-time. (I drink decaf coffee/espresso, and never drink soft drinks or anything else with caffeine)
My daily scheduled routine:
7-9am Hatha Yoga (with no coffee before, wahhhh)
9:30 Breakfast (on enema days, no breakfast)
12pm Ayurvedic Treatment
1pm Lunch
4pm Yoga
5pm Philosophy/ Mantra/ Meditation Class
7pm Dinner
9pm Bedtime
The Ayurvedic Treatment varied. The first few days, I was in bliss getting oil massages and sitting in the steam room. My therapist was typically the same person- a small Nepalese girl who didn’t speak any English but had an adorable laugh. I was usually just trying to decipher what she was telling me to do… which was difficult since it was all very foreign to me. One day I got a dough basti treatment (a circle of dough placed around a joint and filled with warm oil), and then was told to take a bath… in front of her. She drew me my bath and it was a humbling experience. This woman who had been taking care of me let me know when bathtime was over and then DRIED ME OFF. I hadn’t had anyone dry me off since I was a baby, this was one of the weirdest things that had happened to me all my life.
Then, about a week in, the deeper detoxification process began- Enemas. On enema days, I would fast until after the enema, and then I would return a few hours later to have oil inserted to nourish. I would be lying if I said getting enemas administered in a foreign country by a woman who didn’t speak English didn’t scare me a little bit.
After I finished my four days of enemas I was feeling much better. I thought I’d gotten through the worst of it. Until I found out what smoke nasya was.
