Asia

South Asia; classical texts formed over centuries

Ayurveda literally means “knowledge of life”: āyus is life, veda is knowledge. Its roots lie deep in the history of South Asia. The Vedic texts, especially the Atharvaveda, already mention medicinal plants and charms against disease, but a coherent medical system only takes shape later. That system took form in three classical works known together as the Bṛhat Trayī, “the great three”: the Charaka Samhita, on internal medicine, the Sushruta Samhita, on surgery, and Vagbhata’s Ashtanga Hridaya. The first two grew over centuries and reached their present form roughly between a few centuries before and a few centuries after the beginning of the Common Era. Around the seventh century Vagbhata summarised both. Traditional datings are often much earlier; historians keep to these more cautious estimates. Ayurveda never stood alone. It influenced Tibetan Sowa Rigpa and met Unani, the Greco-Arabic medicine that came to India with Muslim rulers. Under British colonial rule Western medicine became the official standard. From the late nineteenth century Indian reformers rebuilt Ayurveda, with their own colleges, pharmacies and standardised remedies. That is why today’s Ayurveda looks different in many ways from classical practice.

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Classical writings from the early centuries BCE and CE

Chinese medicine is one of the oldest continuous healing traditions in the world. In a tomb at Mawangdui, sealed in 168 BCE, archaeologists found silk manuscripts with recipes against fifty-two ailments. They show how old the knowledge already was. The classical foundation lies in a few great works. The Huangdi Neijing, the “Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor”, took shape in the last centuries BCE. The Shennong Bencao Jing, the herbal classic of the mythical farmer-emperor Shennong, describes 365 remedies. Around 200 CE Zhang Zhongjing wrote the Shanghan Lun, on febrile diseases, with formulas still in use today. Over the centuries the knowledge kept growing. In 1578 Li Shizhen completed the Bencao Gangmu, a huge encyclopaedia with almost two thousand remedies. In the twentieth century the tradition was reformed and standardised in China into what the West now calls “traditional Chinese medicine”.

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Medical compendium compiled in Korea in 1613

Korean medicine, hanbang or hanui, has roots in Chinese medicine, but over the centuries developed into a tradition of its own. As early as the Goryeo period Korea became known for its ginseng, which was exported to China and Japan. In the fifteenth century Korean physicians deliberately looked for their own, native remedies, the hyangyak. In 1433 the Hyangyak Jipseongbang appeared, a large work on remedies from Korea itself. The most important work is the Donguibogam, the “Precious Mirror of Eastern Medicine”. King Seonjo commissioned the court physician Heo Jun (1539–1615) in 1596. After the Japanese invasions and much hardship, Heo Jun completed the work in 1610, and in 1613 it was printed. UNESCO added it to the Memory of the World register in 2009.

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Roots in the Mataram era (8th–10th century); UNESCO heritage since 2023

Jamu is the traditional herbal medicine of Indonesia, especially of Java and Bali. Its roots go far back. Stone mortars from the site of Liyangan in Central Java, from the Mataram era of the eighth to tenth centuries, and reliefs on Borobudur already point to the preparation of herbs. At the courts of Java, in Surakarta and Yogyakarta, the knowledge was refined. Princesses and ladies of the court used jamu for beauty and health. In the nineteenth century much of that knowledge was written down. In the twentieth century a large jamu industry arose. Well-known brands such as Nyonya Meneer, founded in 1919, and Sido Muncul turned jamu into a mass product. In 2023 UNESCO recognised “jamu wellness culture” as intangible heritage.

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Developed from the 8th century; the Four Tantras revised in the 12th century

Sowa Rigpa, the “science of healing”, is the traditional medicine of Tibet, the Himalaya and Mongolia. It took shape in the eighth century, when King Trisong Detsen invited physicians from India, China, Persia and other lands to Tibet. According to tradition its founder is Yuthok Yonten Gonpo the Elder, an eighth-century physician. His descendant Yuthok the Younger revised the Gyushi, the “Four Tantras”, the principal work of Tibetan medicine, in the twelfth century. In 1696 the medical college of Chakpori was founded in Lhasa. In the seventeenth century the regent Desi Sangye Gyatso had a series of medical paintings made that explain the teaching in images. After 1959 Chakpori was destroyed. In 1961 the Men-Tsee-Khang was founded in exile in Dharamsala, and it continues the tradition.

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From the 5th–7th centuries; its own form mainly in the Edo period (1603–1868)

Kampo means “method of the Han” and refers to its Chinese origin. Chinese medicine reached Japan from the fifth and sixth centuries, via Korea and directly from China, together with Buddhism and Chinese writing. The oldest surviving Japanese medical work is the Ishinpō, compiled in 984 by the court physician Tanba no Yasuyori. In the Edo period (1603–1868) Japanese physicians developed a practical form of their own. The school of “ancient formulas”, with physicians such as Yoshimasu Tōdō, went back to the Shanghan Lun and emphasised what the physician himself observes. In 1874 the Meiji government decreed that new physicians had to study Western medicine. As a result Kampo was pushed aside. A small group of physicians kept the knowledge alive, and in the twentieth century a revival followed.

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Roots in Greco-Roman antiquity; developed in the Islamic world from the 9th century

Unani comes from the Arabic and Persian word Yunani, “Greek”. The tradition builds on the Greek medicine of Hippocrates and Galen, which was translated, preserved and greatly expanded in the Islamic world. From the ninth century scholars in Baghdad translated Greek medical works into Arabic. Persian and Arab physicians such as al-Razi (865–925) and Ibn Sina (980–1037) built a rich system on them. Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine was studied for centuries in the Islamic world and in Europe. From the thirteenth century Unani came to South Asia with the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughal emperors, where it flourished. After British rule, physicians such as Hakim Ajmal Khan (1868–1927) worked to preserve the tradition. He founded the Tibbia College in Delhi in 1916.

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