Moxibustion: A Complementary Therapy among Bot Tribe Inhabiting Padder Valley of Western Himalaya, India
2022
Complementary and alternative therapies are time tested practices established since the dawn of human civilization. These therapies are common in several medicine systems like Indian Systems of Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Japanese Kampo Medicine System, Tibetan System of Medicine, etc. Moxibustion is a specialized complementary heat therapy, practiced in Tibetan System of Medicine (Sowa-Rigpa System) in some south-east Asian countries like India, Tibet and China. During the current study moxibustion therapy from Paddar valley of district Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, India is documented. A total of 46 informants revealed 04 different moxa methods namely (a) cooking moxa, (b) burning moxa, (c) heating moxa and (d) warming moxa under practice in the region. These methods are applied on 71 basic acupoints on the human body to treat 12 different ailments. The therapeutic herbs which are used for practicing moxibustion by Amchis (traditional healers) include Laphangium luteoalbum (L.) Tzvelev, Anaphalis triplinervis (Sims) Sims ex C. B. Clarke and Leontopodium himalayanum DC. Though the moxa therapy is very old in its origin and feels a superseded in modern systems of medicine, but it still remains an important therapy for Bot tribe in Padder Valley. It is expected that the high significance of the therapy among the Bot tribe is due to absence of modern medication, spontaneous therapeutic facilities, sufficient availability of raw materials, i.e., herbs and cost effectiveness of the treatments. The other probable reason for recurrent use of the therapy in the study area may be the cold weather condition.
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