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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 1 | Page : 1 |
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Folk healing practices and medicine: Whether can be an alternative health management system?
Robindra Teron
Chief Editor, AYUHOM, Director (i/c), North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
| Date of Submission | 08-Nov-2021 |
| Date of Acceptance | 08-Nov-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 26-Nov-2021 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Robindra Teron
North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy, Shillong - 793 018, Meghalaya
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/AYUHOM.AYUHOM_49_21
How to cite this article:
Teron R. Folk healing practices and medicine: Whether can be an alternative health management system?. AYUHOM 2021;8:1 |
How to cite this URL:
Teron R. Folk healing practices and medicine: Whether can be an alternative health management system?. AYUHOM [serial online] 2021 [cited 2023 May 30];8:1. Available from: http://www.ayuhom.com/text.asp?2021/8/1/1/331325 |
Folk healing and medicine are the primogenital form of organized method of treatment that is based on belief and a set of principles by which it is practiced. This is a system of medicine developed over generations, thousands of years ago within various civilizations, societies, communities, tribes, clans spreading to all the nooks, and corners of the globe before the era of modern medicine came in its present shape. The practice of ritualistic healing and folk remedies has been an integral part of different ethnic communities in the globe. It is believed that they have developed their own traditional knowledge of herbal medicine through their aged long trial and error method and passed on orally from the generation to generation. Irrespective of the advance in modern medicine, about 70% rural populations of India practice and believed in traditional medicine for primary health care. Documentation and conservation of traditional knowledge remains one of the basic needs in terms of preserving indigenous knowledge system which, in time, translates into richness of wealth in the form of drug discovery and new technology. The north-eastern region of the India comprising the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura are very rich in traditional knowledge. The practice of ritualistic healing and folk remedies has been an integral part of different ethnic communities or groups in India. North East India represents the transitional zone between the Indian, Indo-Myanmar, and Indo-Chinese biogeographic regions. The area is exceptionally rich in vegetation with different types of forest and high endemism of flora. This rich floral and faunal diversity has led to it being designated as one of the biodiversity hot-spots of the world. The region is inhabited by diverse ethnic groups with unique cultures. Out of 450 tribal communities in India, the region alone provides the dwelling place to about 200 ethnic communities. The origin of these ethnic communities is from the immemorial period, representing their own culture, custom along with their traditional practices for the treatment of different diseases and have a close relationship with forest and ecological diversity in daily life. Although India has a glorious history of Ayurveda, there are several gaps in the surveys and datasets in the traditional practices that need to be immediately addressed. In spite of huge potentiality as an effective and affordable alternative health-care system, there is the vast gap in our understanding of this kind of traditional medical practices. There is, therefore, an urgent necessity to ardently document this auspicious knowledge and validate scientifically before vanishing. Researchers should come forward to fill these knowledge gaps.
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