Sas Carey

Sas Carey (born 1945) is an American film director, author, teacher, holistic nurse and spiritual healer. She is best known for writing the book Reindeer Herders in My Heart: Stories of Healing Journeys in Mongolia[1], her films on Mongolian culture, and founding the non-profit Nomadicare, which provides health services to nomadic herders in Mongolia.[2]

Sas Carey
OccupationDirector/producer
Author
Teacher
Nurse
Healer
Websitewww.lifeenergyheal.com

Personal life

Carey was born in the state of Washington, United States, at the end of World War II. She later moved to the Northeastern United States, where she pursued a degree in education at Western Connecticut State University and Keene State College. She also has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (1983) and Master of Education degree from the University of Vermont. She has lived in Mongolia, France, Sweden, China and Denmark, and currently lives and works in Middlebury, Vermont. Carey has two children and two grandchildren.[3][4]

Career

Holistic Nursing and Prevention

After teaching second grade and working as a professional clay sculptor, Carey became a Registered Nurse and started a private practice in holistic nursing. She also founded the Alternatives for Teens program, which promotes teens' discussion of issues important to them and sets up group events as alternatives to drug and alcohol use. In 1990, the program received one of ten Exemplary Prevention Programs Awards given nationally from the United States Department of Health and Human Services.[5] In 1999, she was hired as an Office of Safe and Healthy Students consultant for the state of Vermont.

Study and Work in Mongolia

In 1994, Carey traveled to China and Mongolia as an American Holistic Nurses Association delegate with the People to People Student Ambassador Program. In 1995, she returned to Mongolia under a grant to study Traditional Mongolian medicine (TMM) with Dr. B. Boldsaikhan at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Ulaanbaatar. She became one of the first two Americans to receive a certificate of Physician of Traditional Mongolian Medicine, an experience documented in the film Steppe Herbs, Mare's Milk, and Jelly Jars.

Following her study of TMM, she continued to work in Mongolia as a Health Education Training Specialist with the World Bank/UN Development Programme, consulting for the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education Programme for the 21st Century.

While working in Mongolia, Carey became familiar with nomadic herders living a traditional lifestyle in the Gobi Desert. In 2001-2004, she conducted a study of health practices in Manlai, South Gobi, interviewing doctors, nurses, bonesetters, administrators, and nomadic women. The study became the basis of her 2006 documentary Gobi Women's Song, of which a Mongolian ambassador has stated, "This is the real life of the people living in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. I am from this place. I was born and grew up there".[6]

Following the study in the Gobi, Carey conducted a seven-year assessment of the health of the Dukha reindeer herders in northern Mongolia. The healthcare database that was developed resulted in a program that provides key vitamins to the people of the community. Carey continues to provide energy healing and remains actively involved in the Dukha community.

From this study, the NGO Nomadicare provided training for all rural (sum) clinic/hospitals in South Gobi and Khovsgol Provinces in 2010 and 2012. Eighty doctors and health practitioners were trained in either traditional Mongolian medicine or in Laboratory Safety Techniques and Testing, impacting the health care options for a population of 175,000.

Previous Mongolian Ambassador to the United States Khasbazaryn Bekhbat stated “Our country is richer by [Sas Carey’s] presence over many years.”[7]

Nomadicare and Life Energy Healing School

After returning from Mongolia, Carey founded the Life Energy Healing School to teach students energy healing and health and prevention techniques using Traditional Mongolian Medicine integrated with modern health practices. The school was based out of Middlebury, and included a correspondence and study-abroad curriculum, requiring prerequisites in western health sciences.

Carey also continued her work in the Gobi by founding the non-profit NGO Nomadicare, which supported the sustainability and cultural survival of nomadic peoples in Mongolia by harmonizing traditional and modern medicine and documenting nomadic ways. She has traveled in rural Mongolia nearly every year for two decades.[8] In 2003, Carey extended Nomadicare's work to include the Dukha reindeer herders of the Mongolian Taiga. One traveler in the Taiga described Carey: "in her mid-60s and a reluctant horsewoman, but she has spent the past seven summers riding round the 44 nomadic families in East Taiga to collect data".[9] For a decade Nomadicare provided traditional Mongolian medicine training, laboratory supplies and general training to rural Gobi and northern Mongolia's rural health centers' health professionals.[10][11][12] It also helped American and Mongolian life sciences students to study with nomadic peoples[13][14] Jane Goodall, Ph.D, said “I fully support the work of [Sas Carey’s] Nomadicare as it seeks to preserve Mongolia’s nomads through health care.”[15] Today, Nomadicare is focused on preserving the traditional culture of Mongolia through films and stories.

In addition to Steppe Herbs, Mare's Milk, and Jelly Jars and Gobi Women's Song, Carey has produced a number of short films about the Dukha herders. Her films have been presented at the Rubin Museum of Art, Green Mountain Film Festival, Vermont International Film Festival, and the Woodstock Film Festival.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

In 2016 Migration won the Earth’s Choice Award at the Earth Day Film Festival, San Francisco.[22] It also received the Honorable Mention award from the International Film Awards Berlin (ifab 2016). The Kasutaja Pärnu Filmifestival | Pärnu International Documentary Film Festival granted Migration The Best Scientific Audiovisual Recording Award (2016).[23]

Carey's 2012 book Reindeer Herders in My Heart: Stories of Healing Journeys in Mongolia has been translated into Mongolian.

Carey actively promotes knowledge of and assistance for Mongolian nomads through talks, seminars, and screenings in the United States and internationally. Her main focus is to increase awareness of Mongolian culture.[24][25][26][27][28]

Filmography
  • Shanghai Market Scenes (1995)
  • Nadaam Festival (1995)
  • Steppe Herbs, Mare's Milk, and Jelly Jars: A Journey into Mongolian Medicine (1997)
  • Shamans Among the Reindeer Herders (2004)
  • Dukha Reindeer Herders Moving (2004)
  • Gobi Women's Song (2006), re-released with the short film Revisiting Gobi Women in 2011
  • Taiga Heart Song (2007)
  • Ceremony (2015)
  • Migration (2016)

Publications
  • Life Skills for Teens: The Group Leader's Guide to Alternatives for Teens (Addison County Parent Child Center, 1989)
  • A Spiritual Journey From Vermont to Mongolia and Back, Everchanging Magazine. January–February 1996.
  • Developing Your Intuition Correspondence Course (1997)
  • Searching for Mongolian Medicine in the Gobi Desert, Ayur Vijnada (a periodical on Indo-Tibetan and allied medical cultures). West Bengal, India. 2002. Reprinted in German in Germany 2004. Reprinted by the Mongolian Society.
  • Reindeer Herders in My Heart: Stories of Healing Journeys in Mongolia. (Taiga memoir. Travel. Healing) 2012. Wren Song Press.

References
  1. "Reindeer Herders in My Heart: An Interview with Nomadicare Founder Sas Carey". Nomadic Expeditions. 2013-05-21. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  2. Staff (2004–2012). "Profile". Nafella Beta : The Smart Way. Nafella LLC. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  3. Unknown. "About The Founder". Life Energy Healing. Life Energy Healing. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  4. Staff (31 October 2006). "Mongolia Film Premiere: Gobi Women's Song". Mongolia-Web. Mongolia-Web. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  5. "Sas Carey "Changes in Mongolia 1994-2013, with a Special Emphasis on Reindeer Herding Nomads" | Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Center". www.indiana.edu. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  6. Documentary on women of Mongolia on tour of US. Mongolia-Web, 2007-08-27. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  7. Carey, Sas (2014-02-27). Reindeer Herders in My Heart: Stories of Healing Journeys in Mongolia (Second ed.). Ulaanbaatar: Wren Song Press. ISBN 9780975370667.
  8. James, M. Sas Carey returning to Mongolia, Addison County Independent, 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  9. Richard and the shaman show, Wild Frontiers, 2010-02-07. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  10. Altankhuyag, A. U.S. nurse organizing Buddhist medical training for Mongolian doctors The Buddhist Channel, 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
  11. Nomadicare Rural Health Project, Virtual Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  12. Nomadicare: Harmonizing traditional and modern medicine for the health and cultural survival of the nomads of Mongolia, ChangeMakers.com, 2011. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  13. J-Term 2012 Internship at Nomadicare, NGO, Middlebury College, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  14. AMCS Fellowship Recipients 2008. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  15. Carey, Sas (2014-02-27). Reindeer Herders in My Heart: Stories of Healing Journeys in Mongolia (Second ed.). Ulaanbaatar: Wren Song Press. ISBN 9780975370667.
  16. Harvard Central-Eurasia-L Announcement Archive. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  17. UVM 2006 Asian Studies Events. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  18. Goviin busguin aylguu, photoblog of Indiana U. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
  19. Mongolia-Web: Mongolia Film Premiere Archived 2012-09-06 at Archive.today. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  20. Green Mountain Film Festival 2007. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  21. Woodstock Film Festival 2007. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  22. "2016 FILMS WINNERS". The Earth Day Film Fest. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  23. "Pärnu Film Festival". www.chaplin.ee. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  24. A Nomad's Life. Denpubs news, 2009-11-24. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  25. Mongolia Society/YMPA Fundraiser, Mongol Survey: A Publication of the Mongolian Society, 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  26. Autism & Shamanism, Rubin Museum of Art, 2009-11-08. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
  27. Chapter, Naa-new New York Metro (2009-12-13). "National Autism Association NAA New York Metro Chapter: Autism and Shamanism at the Rubin Museum of Art". National Autism Association NAA New York Metro Chapter. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  28. "Ceremony-Film | Rubin Museum of Art". rubinmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
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