Jamu

[Narrue]

Does anyone know anything about traditional Indonesian herbal medicine (JAMU). I would like to know if jamu has similar philosophy’s to Indian ayurveda or Chinese medicine i.e. meridians, nadi and the elements in the body etc etc.
I know it is not directly related to Silat but I do know that some Silat practitioners use jamu preparations externally to toughen skin, reduce swelling and internally for other purposes, that is also common in china etc


http://islamonline.net/English/Science/2004/08/article13.shtml

[Orang Jawa]

I don't know much of Jamu. I remembered growing up in Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta. They were a lady, we called her "bibik" she walk around our area carrying this herbal medicine behind her back and selling the jamu by a glass. First time I taste this jamu when I was among teen friends. Taste a bit tart and then she gave me a liquid brown sugar with ginger after taste, that was good. :)

[Gajah Silat]

My only experience from the Jamu cart was when my wife bought some.

It looked like mud (or worse) so I thought I better taste a little. It tasted absolutely disgusting and everyone was rolling around wetting themselves with laughter :confused:

I had just drank some 'womens medicine' which I think was some kind of female aphrodisiac :o :D :D

The cart however, was full of bottles of liquids and powders, but this is all secret stuff.

I think we must also take into account that many people simply cannot afford Western medicine.

This kind of thing fascinates me though. Being in the trade 'an all that :rolleyes: . Especialy when we take into account that many modern drugs for hypertension are derived from snake venom, and a whole class of chemotherapy drugs stemmed from a humble rainforest flower :eek:

Considering Indonesia's biodiversity, there have got to be many powerful plant remedies purely by numbers alone.

As for the philosophy behind it, I haven't a clue. I expect in large there is a great deal of local knowledge of the doorstep jungle pharmacy, that has been passed down through generations.

Let us not forget that not so long ago in Europe, we were boiling up Willow bark for aches and pains and using Foxglove for 'dropsy'(angina). Modern medicine isolated these plant compounds into Aspirin & Digoxin.

There are also commecial jamu preparations freely available in Indonesia such as kaki Tiga Drinks & all that Cap Lang stuff.

Fascinating stuff!

[Kiai Carita]

Does anyone know anything about traditional Indonesian herbal medicine (JAMU). I would like to know if jamu has similar philosophy’s to Indian ayurveda or Chinese medicine i.e. meridians, nadi and the elements in the body etc etc.
I know it is not directly related to Silat but I do know that some Silat practitioners use jamu preparations externally to toughen skin, reduce swelling and internally for other purposes, that is also common in china etc


http://islamonline.net/English/Science/2004/08/article13.shtml


Salam silat everyone,

In Jawa, traditionally, the knowledge of jamu was the knowledge of the upper-caste women, alongside the fine arts of dancing, poetry singing, and batik drawing. Recepies for jamu were handed down from mother to daughter, often also with the jamu making tools, a set of gandhik-pipisan and a lumpang-alu.

The most commonly used group of herbs used in janu are the empon-empon type plants that have big roots like ginger, galangale, turmeric, and temu-ireng, temu-lawak, temu-giring, many other temu plants. Other plants and plant parts are also used like for example, mahogany seeds for diabetes, aloe vera leaves for burns, and lots more.

As for a philosophy akin to Chinese Medicine or Ayurvedha, I think the Jawa jamu is more based on rasa, feeling instead of thinking. Often I find that the jamu for a 'sweet' illness (like diabetes) would be a bitter plant part like mahogany seeds. Sometimes it is like assosiative magic, where the jamu for jaundiced Hepatitis, would be a particularly yellow banana called pisang emas with several lice. Some popular jamu are consumed daily by believers in jamu, these would be types normally called: beras-kencur, kunyit-asem, jamu paitan, sehat-lelaki, sehat perempuan and so on. There is also a big market for sex performance enhancement using plants with such sexy names as 'pasak bumi' (Pillar of the Earth) or 'purwaceng' (The Origin of an Errection).

Jamu can also be used to describe dog-meat sate (sate jamu) and also sometimes uses bizzare animals or animal parts. So a baby rat, still pink and blind, may be swallowed whole and live by men who lift tons of sacks rice into trucks as a jamu to give stregnth (jamu kuat). People with exeema often come to my house to look for a gecko, which when cooked and eaten, is believed to cure the ailment, and eating bat or flying fox is believed by some to cure asma.

Jamu is only one part of traditional Jawa healing and health maintenance.

Warm salaams to all,
(suwe ora jamu: long time no jamu)

Kiai Carita.

[Narrue]

As for a philosophy akin to Chinese Medicine or Ayurvedha, I think the Jawa jamu is more based on rasa, feeling instead of thinking.

So they don’t have any diagnosis procedure like taking your pulse and no idea about how the body functions, no philosophy?
So if I was ill and I went to see one of these people firstly they would guess whats wrong with me and then they would guess what will cure it, not very scientific.

I read that Jamu is mostly practiced by women, that means that most herbal “doctors” in Indonesia are female?

Would balur oil and other herbal preparations used in silat be considered as JAMU?

[Narrue]

Since Rasa was mentioned then I guess kembangan could be used as a diagnostic tool and a means of finding a treatment.

[Kiai Carita]

So they don’t have any diagnosis procedure like taking your pulse and no idea about how the body functions, no philosophy?
So if I was ill and I went to see one of these people firstly they would guess whats wrong with me and then they would guess what will cure it, not very scientific.

I read that Jamu is mostly practiced by women, that means that most herbal “doctors” in Indonesia are female?

Would balur oil and other herbal preparations used in silat be considered as JAMU?

Salam silat,

Mostly you would take jamu as a preventive action, not once you are sick. There is no philosophy compareable to the Indian or Chinese systems of medicine.

However the method of using rasa doesn't mean that you are guessing, it means that you are feeling.

Most jamu makers and recipe holders are women, however there are many male healers who prescribe herbs.

Balur oil is not considered to be jamu although it could be. Herbs used in silat healing could also be called jamu.

Training kembangan is meant to (amongst other things) improve your sensitivity (rasa) but I have never heard of someone doing kembangan while diagnosing.

Warm salaams to all.
KC

[Narrue]

I have heard of people using kembangan to find herbs. I would not imagine that there are many who could use it to diagnose but I guess it’s a possibility. So what is the procedure of diagnosis in Jamu, I mean is there any body contact at all when making a diagnosis?
Lets assume an Indonesian person is sick and there is no western medicine or doctors available, what are the traditional methods of treatment available and how are they applied?

[Kiai Carita]

I have heard of people using kembangan to find herbs. I would not imagine that there are many who could use it to diagnose but I guess it’s a possibility. So what is the procedure of diagnosis in Jamu, I mean is there any body contact at all when making a diagnosis?
Lets assume an Indonesian person is sick and there is no western medicine or doctors available, what are the traditional methods of treatment available and how are they applied?


Well,

I don't know about using kembangan to find herbs. What happens is that one way of doing kembangan is to follow your heart's deepest movement (gerak nurani, ngetutake krenteg) and this does lead to extra sensitivity. This method of developing rasa can be used for identifying medicinal herbs and also for empathizing with someones illness and also for determining the cure.

All healers use a different method but in the traditional jamu, because it is a preventive rather than a curative system, usually the diagnosis is up to the patient. Diagnosis is done by mostly interviewing the patient.

If you fall ill in Jawa before you see a doctor, most likely you will be given kerok, which is scrapping your back or front or all over with oil and a coin, to make red-blue-purple marks all over you like you have been whipped. You could also have a petek-urut massage using oil and herbs. Often people also make what they call kop which is a suction massage using buffallo horns and fire to creat a vacum suck.

You could also be given jamu to drink, again what the jamu would be would depend on what you feel.

Warm salaams to all,
KC

[Narrue]

Well I hope I never become sick in Indonesia then! I am completely surprised; I had always assumed that the Indonesians practiced Ayurvedha because of the strong Indian influence. What you describe sounds like the theory is to bring the toxin/disease to the surface by scraping and sucking the skin. In old times they also did that in the west too, I mean blood letting, leaches to suck your blood out etc. Let’s face it its not going to be very effective against some serious life threatening condition, best to fly home like a sick bird I think ;)

[Kiai Carita]

Well I hope I never become sick in Indonesia then! I am completely surprised; I had always assumed that the Indonesians practiced Ayurvedha because of the strong Indian influence. What you describe sounds like the theory is to bring the toxin/disease to the surface by scraping and sucking the skin. In old times they also did that in the west too, I mean blood letting, leaches to suck your blood out etc. Let’s face it its not going to be very effective against some serious life threatening condition, best to fly home like a sick bird I think ;)

Narrue,

I hope you never get sick in Indonesia too! Myself, if I got sick with something virral or bacterial, I would tend to use the diagnosis of a Western Doctor. If it is not germ induced: anything muscular, to do with bones, to do with inner organs, I would go to my silat teacher in Bogor.

Typically he would ask me to lie down, he might take my pulse, and he might also press around my stomach. Then he would prescribe a change in diet, he might advise something to drink, for instance, teak-wood tea for clearing mocus out of lungs, turmeric for stomach ulcers, or some other simple herb...and most importantly he would advise me to train several jurus.

I would run away fast from any Western doctor who wanted to cut me open on an opperation table unless my teacher said it was neccessary.

Good health to all,
Kiai Carita.

[Narrue]

Well done a little research on this and found that Jamu was first practiced in the majapahit royal courts and was not taught outside the walls.
Over a period of time the various recipes leaked out of the royal court and onto the streets, this supposedly was the beginning of Jamu as we know it today.
It seams that only the recipes leaked out and not much in the way of the working philosophy behind them, at least in Java anyway.
If we consider that the Majapahit Empire was one heavily influenced by Indian philosophy and religion then it seams probable that what was being practiced inside those court walls was Indian ayurvedic medicine.
Ayurvedic medicine is based on the concept that there are five elements in the human body and illness will arise if there is not harmony between those elements.
Whilst the Javanese no longer practice ayurvedic medicine the Balinese have retained this knowledge and still practice ayurvedic medicine to this day.
In Bali the human body is considered as containing the five elements earth, air, fire, water and space which are connected to precise locations in the human body.
Illness can also arise when the physical body (jasmani) becomes out of balance with the non physical counterpart (rohani).
The philosophy behind Balinese medicine is basically adapted from Indian concepts of how the body functions etc

[tellner]

I'd be surprised if it were all that way. The "Majapahit Royal courts" didn't exist in a vacuum. It sounds a lot better to say that it was developed for kings and secretly filtered out to the commoners. The reality is probably that traditional medicines did just as much filtering in to the courts. People end up learning a lot about their local medicinal plants and how to use them.

[Narrue]

If it is not germ induced: anything muscular, to do with bones, to do with inner organs, I would go to my silat teacher in Bogor.
Typically he would ask me to lie down, he might take my pulse, and he might also press around my stomach. Then he would prescribe a change in diet, he might advise something to drink, for instance, teak-wood tea for clearing mocus out of lungs, turmeric for stomach ulcers, or some other simple herb...and most importantly he would advise me to train several jurus.


Is this typical in Indonesia, are silat teachers held highly by the community as healers as well as fighters? With regards to Silat healing in Java, does this have a philosophical system or do silat teachers also use Rasa to diagnose and cure illness?
Rasa is also a word used in the Indian ayurvedic system e.g. Rasa dhatu (plasma)

[Narrue]

Here is a link to an audio interview of an American woman who went to Bali to study Jamu. She talks about her experiences. Its quite long so be prepared.

http://www.lauralee.com/audio/asx/041604.asx