Mongolian Chiropractic Practices
During the week of Tsaagan Sar (mid February), my back suffered a slightly exaggerated catastrophic failure. On Monday I started feeling spasms across my back like tremors of an earthquake. By Tuesday, I was down. This felt more than inconvenient. We knew we needed to do something about it. Jean asked around, and Chuka, the director of KAMA gave us the number of a chiropractor “hospital” about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It was called “ачит мутар- аарцаг нурууны бариа заслын” [pronounced Achilt Motar- Aartsag Noroonee baria zasleen] Which I think means “Charming Hand- Pelvis, Spine Surgery Center.” The chiropractor had me stretch and bend. He then told me he could work on me. He wanted me to come in ten days straight for sessions.
This “hospital” was basically one large room with five queen size foam mattresses on the floor where everyone is getting worked on at the same time. That night, he had one of his “associates” give me a full body massage. This guy was half my height and less than half my weight. 30 minutes into the session, he was huffing and puffing and sweat was dripping off him onto me. This went on for another 30 minutes at which time the doctor then came over, cracked my neck in a series of dangerous submission moves like the full nelson, bear hug and chicken wing. The last 10 minutes was me laying on my stomach with a heat pad on my lower back.
I saw the chiropractor for ten days. They worked on my back each day pretty much the same way. I was always the celebrity when I walked in. All the patients and associates would stare at me and talk about me saying “amerik-khun”. I would always try to get the spot in the corner where I could just stare at the wall while I was worked on. It was on my second or third day that I was staring at the wall and my right shoulder was being worked over. My guy then turned my head to work on my left shoulder. There on the mattress next to me was a 40-50 year old woman staring at me. She was smiling and she was topless. I cursed my luck and closed my eyes until I could turn back the other way. This was not an isolated incident. Mongolian culture does not view privacy and modesty the same way as we do in the west.
Everyday I received what I would call a massage, but it wasn’t entirely a massage. They did some crazy things. This will be hard to describe but one thing they did was have me kneel, with my guy behind me, he would roll us both back so that he was on his back and I was above him with my back facing him. His knees would be holding me up. He would bend my arms to be behind HIS head, and then he would push up with his hands and knees to stretch my back. One other thing he did was have me lay on my stomach and arms resting above my head. He would put his hands on my forearms and then he would press his knees into my lower back. Then , VIGOROUSLY, would run his knees up and down my back. By the end of the ten days, my back felt great and continues to give me no problems. One other thing that was odd is called Cupping Therapy, I tried it once. With my shirt off, they oiled up my back. My guy then took a glass cup, heated up the inside with a flame and then stuck it to my back. The heated air inside sucked the skin up inside the cup. I had 12 of these going down my back. I lay there for 20 minutes, then he popped them off. I had these giant round purple bruises on my back. At first, the sections of my back were hard, protruding and numb. Eventually the skin went back down. I have no idea if it did anything other than destroy the capillaries on my back. Whatever they did though, worked. Their arcane ways made my back feel great. I will be going back to them on a regular basis. Plus its cheap, only 20,000t ($8.50). Praise God!
This “hospital” was basically one large room with five queen size foam mattresses on the floor where everyone is getting worked on at the same time. That night, he had one of his “associates” give me a full body massage. This guy was half my height and less than half my weight. 30 minutes into the session, he was huffing and puffing and sweat was dripping off him onto me. This went on for another 30 minutes at which time the doctor then came over, cracked my neck in a series of dangerous submission moves like the full nelson, bear hug and chicken wing. The last 10 minutes was me laying on my stomach with a heat pad on my lower back.
I saw the chiropractor for ten days. They worked on my back each day pretty much the same way. I was always the celebrity when I walked in. All the patients and associates would stare at me and talk about me saying “amerik-khun”. I would always try to get the spot in the corner where I could just stare at the wall while I was worked on. It was on my second or third day that I was staring at the wall and my right shoulder was being worked over. My guy then turned my head to work on my left shoulder. There on the mattress next to me was a 40-50 year old woman staring at me. She was smiling and she was topless. I cursed my luck and closed my eyes until I could turn back the other way. This was not an isolated incident. Mongolian culture does not view privacy and modesty the same way as we do in the west.
Everyday I received what I would call a massage, but it wasn’t entirely a massage. They did some crazy things. This will be hard to describe but one thing they did was have me kneel, with my guy behind me, he would roll us both back so that he was on his back and I was above him with my back facing him. His knees would be holding me up. He would bend my arms to be behind HIS head, and then he would push up with his hands and knees to stretch my back. One other thing he did was have me lay on my stomach and arms resting above my head. He would put his hands on my forearms and then he would press his knees into my lower back. Then , VIGOROUSLY, would run his knees up and down my back. By the end of the ten days, my back felt great and continues to give me no problems. One other thing that was odd is called Cupping Therapy, I tried it once. With my shirt off, they oiled up my back. My guy then took a glass cup, heated up the inside with a flame and then stuck it to my back. The heated air inside sucked the skin up inside the cup. I had 12 of these going down my back. I lay there for 20 minutes, then he popped them off. I had these giant round purple bruises on my back. At first, the sections of my back were hard, protruding and numb. Eventually the skin went back down. I have no idea if it did anything other than destroy the capillaries on my back. Whatever they did though, worked. Their arcane ways made my back feel great. I will be going back to them on a regular basis. Plus its cheap, only 20,000t ($8.50). Praise God!
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