An Introduction

Since the time of our Buddhist and Hindu ancestors who arrived to Maldives from nearby lands people who lived on these islands had been skillful in utilizing the herbs and other available resources in the natural environment for finding remedies for the illnesses they suffered from.

Thus they used a combination of  their spiritual healing techniques related to religion and remedies from herbs,other plants and trees and sea creatures.

The use of spiritual remedies were in practice since the time of Buddhism as a form of Buddhism called Tantric Buddhism was practiced by ancient Maldivians. The practice of religious and spiritual measures for illnesses as simple as headaches continued even after conversion to Islam. It was a common practice of the past to charm a coconut palm leave strip with some religious sayings and tying  around a persons head for headaches and other pains. Sprinkling water after saying some prayers was a common remedy for many illnesses. Many Psychological disorders were considered as being a person possessed by an evil spirit and spiritual healers spent nights and days saying prayers to heal such people.

Other than spiritual remedies use of herbs,parts of trees and sea creatures etc. for treatment of illnesses were common. When people were quite convinced that the illness is not caused by any evil spirit or due to black magic they always turned towards the herbal and other sorts of healers. Most of the herbs and parts of trees etc utilized by the early Maldivians were acquired from the Maldivian environment. However, some of the materials used for such medications were brought from nearby lands in their rare trips. Currently those who practice the herbal medicine in the Maldives mainly utilize imported medical products as the natural habitat has less to provide for medicine now due to urbanization.

In many cases such as fracture of a bone paralysis even today people mainly rely on the traditional form of treatment. Hence the traditional practice of medical treatment has not died. Moreover , there is plenty of scope for the modern medicine to improve in the Maldives which keeps the gateway for traditional medicine still wide open.

Now the number of people whom people rely on such traditional treatments have become less. Hence getting a person suitable for traditional medication is not an easy task in the Maldives now. However, some medical centres which utilize a combination of traditional medicine with the modern practices are available in the capital of Maldives , Male'.

In this blog I intend to use the support of the medical practitioners of traditional medicine in Maldives and others to provide information for the readers.