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Traditional Thai Medicine |
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 Indigenous yet fascinating, it is a blend of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and the healing wisdom of local hill tribes. The proximity of Thailand to the two cradles of Asian civilization, China and India, makes it a veritable melting pot where the three cultures, languages and corpora of knowledge blend and mutate.The Thai traditional healing system also called TTM (Traditional Thai Medicine), though indigenous, is drawn mainly from Ayurveda. With the influx of Chinese immigrants into Thailand, aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were also seamlessly integrated into Traditional Thai Medicine, along with healing modalities of the indigenous hill tribes of neighboring Burma, Laos and Cambodia. This confluence of healing traditions has much to offer. |
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| Traditional Thai Medicine (TTM) is a wisdom Thai people inherited from their ancestors passing from generations to generations. TTM has been accumulated from years of experiences, observations, testing, selections and collections and handed over to next generations. Thai people use herbal medicine and particular healing method to treat patients. The treatment is usually combination of beliefs such as Buddhism, astrology and animism and recently modern medicine acquired from the west was also combined. Thereafter, Thai medical science has been steadily developed up to now. It can be concluded that TTM is a Thai heritage inherited from Thai ancestors. TTM is a combination of massage, steam bath, massage with a hot compress containing medicinal herbs, herbal medicinal plants, religious rites and mental healing. In 1923 a Medical Act was promulgated to regulate standardization of medical treatments and practices. Since then Thai traditional method of treatment was considered having lower standards and lack credibility and it started to become fading from Thai way of life. TTM had been abandoned and neglected for almost a century. Thanks to the Thai economic downturn when Thai people are urged to stand on their own feet. One of the measures is a campaign to revive TTM and used it to substitute imported medicine. In addition it is also a reawakening of Thai traditional way of life. TTM is another good example how Thai people pursue His Majesty the King's initiative to encourage Thai people to be self-sufficient and lead simple and humble life. The practice is also an excellent method to preserve Thai local wisdom inherited from our ancestors and make it sustained. The preservation will illustrate Thailand as a civilized society and the wisdom will be passed on to future generations continually. Thai healing system can be steamed into two traditions, Rural and Royal. There is much overlap between the two; they share the same terminology and herbal recipes. However, it is only the royal tradition that has developed a formal theory of disease diagnosis and treatment. The Rural and Hill tribe traditions tend to be informal, varying considerably from village to village, and from practitioner to practitioner. The knowledge is passed down largely by oral tradition and through secret herbal manuscripts form teacher to pupil. It is not structured and relies mainly on the expertise and intuition of the practitioner. A Holistic Approach Thai Sen In Thai philosophy, a life is seen as a combination of body, mind, and spirit. These echoes the Ayurvedic principal that man is a three-part comprise Shareer (body), Manas (mind), and Chitta (consciousness). Holistic medicine follows a balanced approach to healing through a combination of therapies designed to strengthen the body’s own defenses, instill a sense of mental and physical harmony, and eradicate disease from the root by promoting a naturally healthy lifestyle.  When thinking about traditional Thai healing, perhaps the first thing that comes to our minds is the Thai massage. However, more than being just a spa therapy for relaxation, Thai massage is a medical treatment used to treat diseases and disorders of all kinds, especially stress, sore muscles and back pain. The underlying tenet of the Thai massage routine is the theory of the sen, or the energy lines. Although at first glance there seems to be some similarity between the Thai and the Chinese systems, these meridians are quite different. The sen, like the Ayurvedic nadi, do not correlate with any organ system the way the Chinese meridians do. The Thai meridians all begin at the navel and end at the extremities of the body. Rather than correspond to a single organ, the Thai meridians may be used to treat any organ system through which they pass along their course.The Thai sen share many similarities with their Indian counterparts, the nadis. Some even share the same names. For example, the Sen Sumana, Sen Itha, and Sen Pingala of the Thai tradition relate to the Sushumna Nadi, Ida Nadi, and Pingala Nadi of the Ayurvedic tradition. Blockage in these energy lines or sen is what leads to physical or even mental disorders. The aim of Thai massage or nuad boran, as it is commonly called in this part of the world, is to release blocked energy. Many masters of nuad boran are able to sense where the client’s body is imbalanced merely by scanning or palpating the body, by working the meridians, or simply through observation. The technique of nuad boran involves application of pressure on certain pressure points. The acupressure points used in Thai massage are often parallel to the Indian marma points and acupressure points in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Even so, these two traditions are not interchangeable. The body of the person receiving the massage is then skillfully manoeuvred into various positions in order to optimize energy flow. These postures are very similar to the yogic postures from he Ayurvedic tradition. When the alignment principles of Yoga are applied to the postures, a safe and effective massage treatment is administered. Owing to this, many modern therapists refer to Thai massage as the Thai Yoga Massage therapy. |
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