Go natural to heal thyself is the soothing massage from healers

Herbal massages and natural medicinal steam baths seem to have caught the fancy of many in the city for they have been thronging the five-day national workshop on Tribal healers and tribal medicine at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) seeking a panacea for all their ailments.

The massage and steam bath offered by Kurichchan tribes of Kerala, has been the major attraction at the workshop as professional healers offer massages to alleviate body pains and also treat physical ailments.

Sanil Kumar, one of the healers, said that steam bath is good for health and anybody can gain the benefits of it because only medicinal plants available in the forest region are used for the purpose. IGRMS has made separate arrangements for women and men for bathing as well as for offering a massage.

About 65 tribal healers from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand are participating in the workshop which demonstrates indigenous healing practices from different tribal communities.

Natural herbs, shrubs, bulbs and roots along with locally prepared oils and other packed indigenous medicines for physical ailments prepared by the healers are also on display.

Tribal communities like Kurubas and Kotas from Tamil Nadu, Kurichchan tribes from Kerala, the Valmiki tribe from Andhra Pradesh are specialised in healing wounds, partial paralysis, traditional massage, steam bath, muscular pains, hair fall, asthma, respectively.

Besides treatment and display of natural medicines, interactive sessions with healers, demonstrations and special lectures have been organised to disseminate tribal heritage and knowledge systems.

Earlier in the day, Prof Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri, Director, IGRMS, inaugurated the workshop in the presence of President of Anthropological Survey of India P K Misra, Deputy Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata M Sasikumar and others. The dignitaries stressed on the need for national-level workshop, which would enable the healers to create awareness about natural medicine among the city dwellers. Natural healthcare practices have a huge potential in addressing public health issues, they said.