Traditional Thai medicine

Last updated

Traditional Thai medicine is a system of methods and practices, such as herbal medicine, bodywork practices, and spiritual healing that is indigenous to the region currently known as Thailand. While not all Buddhist medicine is Thai, Thai medicine is considered Buddhist medicine.

Contents

History

Traditional Thai medicine stems [1] [2] from pre-history indigenous regional practices with a strong animistic foundation, animistic traditions of the Mon and Khmer peoples who occupied the region prior to the migration of the T'ai peoples, T'ai medicine and animistic knowledge, Indian medical knowledge (arriving pre-Ayurveda) coming through the Khmer peoples, Buddhist medical knowledge via the Mon peoples, and Chinese medical knowledge (arriving pre-TCM) with the migration of the T'ais who came largely from southern China.

In the early-1900s, traditional medicine was "outlawed as quackery" in favor of Western medicine, however by the mid-1990s traditional medicine was once again being supported by the Thai government. The Seventh National Economic and Social Plan for 1992-1996 stated that "[t]he promotion of people's health entails the efforts to develop traditional wisdom in health care, including Thai traditional medicine, herbal medicine, and traditional massage, so as to integrate it into the modern health service system." In 1993 the government of Thailand created the National Institute of Thai Traditional Medicine, under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Health. The goal of the institute is to "systematize and standardize the body of traditional Thai medicine knowledge", to "gather knowledge, revise, verify, classify, and explain traditional Thai medicine knowledge", and to "compare and explain the philosophies and basic theories of traditional Thai medicine and to produce textbooks on traditional Thai medicine". [3]

Divisions

Regional differences between healing arts practitioners across Thailand and the recent codification of traditional Thai medicine by the Thai Ministry of Public Health have led to the existence of several variations of Thai medicine. These can be understood as follows:

Branches

Traditional Thai medicine (used as umbrella term for all medicine of Thailand) consists of five primary branches:

Licensing

Licensing and promotion is gaining ground in Thailand due to concerns about quality and safety. In fiscal year 2013, almost one million people used traditional therapy under the universal health scheme, which partially subsidized the treatments. About 6,000 hospitals are equipped with clinics having licensed traditional medical practitioners. [4] One of the leading hospitals in Traditional Thai medicine is Chaophraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital in Prachinburi Province. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massage</span> Manipulation of the body through stretching and pressure

Massage is the rubbing or kneading of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In European countries, a person professionally trained to give massages is traditionally known as a masseur (male) or masseuse (female). In the United States, these individuals are often referred to as "massage therapists;" In some provinces of Canada, they are called "registered massage therapists."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayurveda</span> Alternative medicine with roots in India

Ayurveda is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayurveda is pseudoscientific.

Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health (MVAH) is a form of alternative medicine founded in the mid-1980s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who developed the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Distinct from traditional ayurveda, it emphasizes the role of consciousness, and gives importance to positive emotions. Maharishi Ayur-Veda has been variously characterized as emerging from, and consistently reflecting, the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, representing the entirety of the ayurvedic tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional medicine</span> Formalized folk medicine

Traditional medicine comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the era of modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement and treatment of physical and mental illness". Traditional medicine is often contrasted with scientific medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of alternative medicine</span>

The history of alternative medicine refers to the history of a group of diverse medical practices that were collectively promoted as "alternative medicine" beginning in the 1970s, to the collection of individual histories of members of that group, or to the history of western medical practices that were labeled "irregular practices" by the western medical establishment. It includes the histories of complementary medicine and of integrative medicine. "Alternative medicine" is a loosely defined and very diverse set of products, practices, and theories that are perceived by its users to have the healing effects of medicine, but do not originate from evidence gathered using the scientific method, are not part of biomedicine, or are contradicted by scientific evidence or established science. "Biomedicine" is that part of medical science that applies principles of anatomy, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, and other natural sciences to clinical practice, using scientific methods to establish the effectiveness of that practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional Thai massage</span> Traditional therapy in Thailand

Traditional Thai massage or Thai yoga massage is a traditional therapy combining acupressure, Indian Ayurvedic principles, and assisted yoga postures. In the Thai language, it is usually called nuat phaen thai or nuat phaen boran, though its formal name is nuat thai according to the Traditional Thai Medical Professions Act, BE 2556 (2013).

Hilot (/HEE-lot/) is an ancient Filipino art of healing. It uses manipulation and massage to achieve the treatment outcome, although techniques differ from one practitioner to another. It emerged from the shamanic tradition of the ancient Filipinos with healers considering their practice as derived from their calling from visions or from having been born by breech.

Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine based on bioactive compounds in plants and animals and practiced by various ethnic groups, especially those with little access to western medicines, e.g., indigenous peoples. The word ethnomedicine is sometimes used as a synonym for traditional medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional Tibetan medicine</span> Traditional medical system

Traditional Tibetan medicine, also known as Sowa-Rigpa medicine, is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials and physical therapies to treat illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siddha medicine</span> System of traditional medicine originating in southern India

Siddha medicine is a form of traditional medicine originating in southern India. It is one of the oldest systems of medicine in India.

Bush medicine comprises traditional medicines used by Indigenous Australians, being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous people have been using various components of native Australian flora and some fauna as medicine for thousands of years, and a minority turn to healers in their communities for medications aimed at providing physical and spiritual healing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian folk religion</span> Animistic and polytheistic beliefs and practices

Malaysian folk religion refers to the animistic and polytheistic beliefs and practices that are still held by many in the Islamic-majority country of Malaysia. Folk religion in Malaysia is practised either openly or covertly depending on the type of rituals performed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wai khru</span> Thai ritual formalizing student-teacher relationship

The wai khru ceremony is a Thai ritual in which students pay respects to teachers in order to express their gratitude and formalize the student–teacher relationship. It is regularly held near the beginning of the school year in most schools in Thailand. Wai khru has long been an important rite in the traditional martial and performing arts, as well as in astrology, Thai Massage and other traditional arts; students and performers of Muay Thai and Krabi Krabong, as well as Thai dance and classical music, will usually perform a wai khru ritual at their initiation as well as before performances to pay respect and homage to both their teachers and the deities who patronize their arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional African medicine</span> Traditional medical practices in Africa

Traditional African medicine is a range of traditional medicine disciplines involving indigenous herbalism and African spirituality, typically including diviners, midwives, and herbalists. Practitioners of traditional African medicine claim, largely without evidence, to be able to cure a variety of diverse conditions including cancer, psychiatric disorders, high blood pressure, cholera, most venereal diseases, epilepsy, asthma, eczema, fever, anxiety, depression, benign prostatic hyperplasia, urinary tract infections, gout, and healing of wounds and burns and Ebola.

This article is about traditional Hausa medicine practised by the Hausa people of West Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of medicine in the Philippines</span>

The history of medicine in the Philippines discusses the folk medicinal practices and the medical applications used in Philippine society from the prehistoric times before the Spaniards were able to set a firm foothold on the islands of the Philippines for over 300 years, to the transition from Spanish rule to fifty-year American colonial embrace of the Philippines, and up to the establishment of the Philippine Republic of the present. Although according to Dr. José Policarpio Bantug in his book A Short History of Medicine in the Philippines During The Spanish Regime, 1565-1898 there were "no authentic monuments have come down to us that indicate with some certainty early medical practices" regarding the "beginnings of medicine in the Philippines" a historian from the United States named Edward Gaylord Borne described that the Philippines became "ahead of all the other European colonies" in providing healthcare to ill and invalid people during the start of the 17th century, a time period when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. From the 17th and 18th centuries, there had been a "state-of-the-art medical and pharmaceutical science" developed by Spanish friars based on Filipino curanderos that was "unique to the [Philippine] islands."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insects in medicine</span> Uses of insects for medicinal purposes

Insects have long been used in medicine, both traditional and modern, sometimes with little evidence of their effectiveness.

Traditional Cambodian medicine comprise several traditional medicine systems in Cambodia.

References

  1. Salguero, C. Pierce. Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Ayurveda, Hohm Press, 2007.
  2. Ratarasarn, Somchintana. The Principles and Concepts of Thai classical medicine. Bangkok: Thai Khadi Research Institute, Thammasat University, 1986
  3. Viggo Brun (2003). "Traditional Thai Medicine". In Selin, Helaine; Shapiro, Hugh (eds.). Medicine Across Cultures. Springer. p. 129. ISBN   9781402011665.
  4. "B400m boost for Thai therapies". Bangkok Post. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  5. "Chao Phraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital to Be Developed as a Thai Traditional Medical Hub in ASEAN".