The Royal Commission has heard Dr Henry Sztulman at the ashram was distrustful of the children's allegations which were reported to police in 1987.

The resident doctor at a yoga ashram at the centre of a child sex abuse inquiry said he did not believe the rape claims when he first heard them.

Dr Henry Sztulman, a qualified general practitioner and resident of the Satyananda Yoga Ashram from 1979 to 1990, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was distrustful of the children's allegations which were reported to police in 1987.

He continued to visit the ashram's leader, Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, after he was jailed in 1989 over sexual offences committed against ashram children. The conviction was overturned in 1991.

He told the commission he now believes former child residents were sexually abused by their spiritual leader but denied a claim that he treated one child with morphine for minor ailments.

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The doctor's prescribing methods were called into question at the commission, with evidence of a 2002 Medical Tribunal of NSW finding that he was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct in relation to prescribing drugs of addiction.

He was reprimanded by the tribunal and placed under supervision for about two years.

Dr Sztulman told the commission he did not witness any of the vicious beatings described in evidence and could not recall the children being deprived of food.

"They were fun loving kids who played around," he said.

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Royal Commission: Satyananda ashram doctor did not see sex abuse

SYDNEY Dec 9 AAP - A doctor has denied over-prescribing morphine to children at a NSW yoga ashram where he lived for a decade.

Former child residents at the Mangrove Yoga Ashram have given evidence that they were drugged, beaten and raped by the spiritual leader, Swami Akhandananda.

Practices at the NSW Central Coast retreat during the 70s and 80s are being examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Henry Sztulman, a GP who lived at the ashram for 10 years, denied allegations by witnesses that he prescribed morphine regularly for minor ailments like an infected toe.

"Absolutely not," Dr Sztulman said.

Dr Sztulman denied administering morphine at the ashram except on two occasions when people were in excruciating pain - once to a swami who had been poisoned by a stone fish.

Dr Sztulman said he slowly came to accept there had been abuse at the ashram although he never saw any "overt behaviour" indicating abuse of the children.

He denied witnessing public beatings of adults and children.

"I didn't actually see it, but one of the guys ... said something happened and Swami Akhandananda slapped his face," he said.

In 2002 The Medical Tribunal of NSW prohibited Dr Sztulman from prescribing addictive pain killers.

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I didn't give kids morphine: ashram doctor

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) - One thousand etched stones, once buried below the place that became Port Angeles, tell the story of the Klallam people.

These stones, along with a galaxy of other artifacts, came to light when the ancient Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen was discovered beginning in 2003.

Now seven of the stones - alongside some two dozen other Tse-whit-zen artifacts - are part of a public exhibit at the Elwha Heritage Center, where the Great Hall is the display space.

Viewing the collection, along with the centers new Spirit Unleashed art show by native and non-native artists, is free at the Heritage Center, 401 E. First St., and the Great Hall is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

The exhibit of artifacts opened last Thursday night, along with a reception for the artists in the new show.

Some of the stones, smooth ovals that once rested in the palms of Klallam hands, were designed to catch peoples tears.

Many tears have been shed by the Native Americans who lived here, before and after the discovery of Tse-whit-zen beneath whats now Marine Drive.

But for Lower Elwha Klallam tribal chairwoman Frances Charles, this Heritage Center exhibit is a long-awaited closing of a circle.

The artifacts, from a village where the Klallam people lived for 2,700 years, have much to teach, Charles believes.

They represent her tribes ancestors, people who fished in the salmon-rich Elwha River long before it was dammed twice; who hiked high into the Olympic Mountains to commune with the spiritual and natural worlds.

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Ancient Indian artifacts displayed in Port Angeles