Sas Carey

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.

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. 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".

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.” 

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. 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". 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. It also helped American and Mongolian life sciences students to study with nomadic peoples 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.” 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.

In 2016 Migration won the Earth’s Choice Award at the Earth Day Film Festival, San Francisco. It was also received Honorable Mention at the Kasutaja Pärnu Filmifestival | Pärnu International Documentary Film Festival in 2016.

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.

Filmography

Publications