ABSTRACT
Eastern healing traditions that may have had their theoretical roots in Indian and Chinese traditions have built on local health traditions and have adapted into their own systems. They have now become distinct modalities identifiable with the various cultures and sub-cultures. The Japanese, IndoChinese, people of the Archipelago and those of the Middle Eastern regions have developed their own healing traditions though they have been rooted in Indian and Chinese traditions of healing. Unani, or Graeco Arabic medicine, originating with Hippocrates in Greece and coming to India with the Moghuls, is widespread throughout India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and has become an established Middle Eastern tradition. Shiatsu and Su Jok have both sprung from the Chinese tradition of meridian points and acupressure (see Chapter 24). Modalities found in traditional Thai medicine are good representations of the confluence of traditions. Ayurveda predominates, but influences of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as traditions
and practices of the hill tribes of the neighbouring regions, are significant.
