Scholars have identified two forms of Thai medicine: the royal or literate tradition, upheld by the medical school and supported by the Thai government, and the regulations passed down orally from generation to generation by individual healers. There are no distinctions between folk practices. Royal Tradition is increasingly being incorporated as official policy seeks to centralize and integrate TTM (Thai Traditional Medicine) and raise standards of medical practice.
Tourists and travelers who study at Thailand's medical schools encounter a standardized healing system that relies heavily on Ayurveda, yoga, and Western influences. This organized set of teachings, presented in literature and school curricula, is commonly known as the Royal Tradition or Elite Tradition.
It is not clear why the Ayurvedic model was chosen as the standard, as it was developed under the direction of the Thai king in a cultural renaissance dating back to the late 18th century, giving insight into the Indian influence on Thai medicine before that. There's no way. What is clear is that while modern traditional Thai medicine looks to Ayurveda to explain and codify its tenets, TTM also relies on Western, Chinese, and other influences.
Royal Tradition is a formal medical field studied at university. Aspiring professionals only need to take herbal medicine and massage, but they must be licensed to practice. The course lasts 3-4 years. Shorter classes are also available and are popular with tourists. It is this form of traditional medicine that is taught in schools throughout the kingdom and is represented in the majority of literature on the subject.
If you didn't go beyond the knowledge that schools and books provide, you would think that the only form of Thai medicine is the Royal Tradition. But that's not the case. A variety of healing arts exist outside of the literate tradition. Collectively known (for lack of a better term) as folk or local traditions, these are collections of informal customs that are passed down from teachers to students and vary from place to place.
Folk traditions consist of a variety of practices that have survived despite their elite opponents, such as native massage, herbal medicine, tattooing, astrology, amulet-making, mediation, and exorcism.
These are employed by unlicensed and unregulated folk healers. Such healers learn orally and experientially and often lack a background in scientific theory.
Healers in rural traditions may appear to modern observers more like shamans or witch doctors than actual doctors. Yet, as much as we would like to dismiss it as mere superstition or even "quack" medicine, many Thais still consult folk healers even in urban areas.
Unfortunately for outsiders, Thai folk medicine holds many secrets. The healer jealously protects the art and transmits it orally directly to the heir. The background behind these is that special techniques and manners are difficult to convey through documentation, and the story is similar to that of handicrafts in general. Furthermore, these practices are neither approved nor sanctioned by governments keen to promote Royal Tradition as a legitimate form of TTM. Rural traditions are not formally taught in Thai medical schools, so they are particularly difficult for foreigners to study.
One important difference between the two traditions is how they view health, disease, and treatment. Like Ayurveda, the Royal Tradition views disease as an inner battle between harmony and chaos in the body. Balancing the strength of the elements and the flow of life energy is the key to health and longevity.
Thai folk medicine, on the other hand, is imbued with a strong belief in the spirit and its power to influence human well-being. Illness and misfortune are often seen as attacks from malevolent beings, such as angry ghosts or banished spirits. Charms, prayers, tattoos, amulets, and rituals are used to thwart these attacks.
However, when I work with many clients, I find that the cause of a person's illness is different for each person, and there are also genetic and environmental influences, so it is not just one of the two types that is the cause. is obvious.
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