Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AYURVEDA
Ayurveda (eye-your-veda) is an ancient system of medicine using herbs, oils, metals and
animal products to heal and rejuvenate. Influenced by the system of the same name in In-
dia, Ayurveda is widely used in Sri Lanka for a range of ailments.
Ayurveda postulates that the five elements (earth, air, ether, water and light) are linked
to the five senses, which in turn shape the nature of an individual's constitution - his or
herdosha(life force). Disease and illness occurs when thedoshais out of balance. The
purpose of Ayurvedic treatment is to restore the balance.
For full-on therapeutic treatments, patients must be prepared to make a commitment
of weeks or months. It's a gruelling regimen featuring frequent enemas and a bare minim-
um diet of simple vegetable-derived calories.
Much more commonly, tourists treat themselves at Ayurvedic massage centres at-
tached to major hotels and in popular tourist centres. Full treatments take up to three
hours and include the following relaxing regimens:
Herbal saunas (Sweda Karma) are based on a 2500-year-old design. The plaster walls
are infused with herbal ingredients, including honey and sandalwood powder. The floor
of the sauna is covered with herbs. Like a European sauna, a steady mist of medicinal
steam is maintained with water sprinkled onto hot coals.
The steam bath (Vashpa Swedanam) looks like a cross between a coffin and a torture
chamber. Patients lie stretched out on a wooden platform, and a giant hinged door cov-
ers the body with only the head exposed. From the base of the wooden steam bath, up
to 50 different herbs and spices infuse the body.
The so-called Third Eye of the Lord Shiva treatment (Shiro Dhara) is the highlight for
many patients. For up to 45 minutes, a delicate flow of warm oil is poured slowly onto
the forehead and then smoothed gently into the temples by the masseuse.
While there are numerous spas with good international reputations, the standards at
some Ayurvedic centres are low. The massage oils may be simple coconut oil and the
practitioners may be unqualified, except in some instances where they may even be sex
workers. As poisoning cases have resulted from herbal treatments being misadmin-
istered, it pays to enquire precisely what the medicine contains and then consult with a
conventional physician.
For massage, enquire whether there are both male and female therapists available;
we've received complaints from female readers about sexual advances from some male
