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The classical Hindu
medical science based on Ayurvedic texts, traditional Balinese
Usada, has been resurrected in accord with the progress of modern
medicine. The new Usada (health science) faculty at the Indonesia
Hindu University (UNHI), which inaugurally opened its academic
year 2002 – 2003, was a giant leap towards the preservation
of this heritage science. Scholar of the faculty is to be granted
a specific degree in Usada medicine on graduation. The faculty
is in similarity to the Ayur Vedic College in India.
Western writings and modern documentation on
Balinese traditional medicine was pioneered by a Dutch medic,
Doctor Wolfgang Weck, back in 1930, with his prominent book
entitled “Heikunde und Volkstum auf Bali”. Anthropologist
Dr R Goris wrote The Balinese Medical Literature. These notable
figures investigated the detail and complications of Balinese
traditional medicine, especially on theories, diagnosis, medicinal
ingredients, and methods of concoction.
But of course, the birthrights of the local
science are its practitioners; those have studied them long
before the Westerners. Traditional Balinese healers, called
Balian, study various healing theories from the Usada palm leaf
scriptures, called lontars.
Usada Lontar is a manuscript on traditional medicine and medicinal
plants written on dry lontar leaves and is a part of the Balinese
culture. The lontar
manuscripts are written in Sanskrit, Old Javanese or Old Balinese
language.
Usada comes from a Sanskrit word, “ausadhi”,
which means medicine, and lontar
is the name of a palm tree, which usually grows in areas with
a dry monsoonal climate. The leaves of the lontar
tree (Borassus flabelifer L) have some other local names, such
as rontal, siwalan, siwala, sawala, suwala, sawala patra, sewana
patra and also ‘ental’ or ‘tal’.
It reveals that there are still a lot of unknown
collections of lontar
manuscripts, including for traditional medicine and medical
plants and they are mostly preserved in villages. A lot of effort
has been made to collect all of the information.
Who wrote these scriptures? No fact has yet
been revealed. Since the Javanese Hindu rule, year 898-910,
Usada had been native there. It was believed that the writings
of the Usada ‘prototype’ scriptures were spearheaded
by Mpu Kuturan of the later Majapahit era. Then the kingdom
of Waturenggong in Gelgel (in Karangasem Regency), in the 15th
century, writings were extensively done by Dang Hyang Dwijendra.
The tradition was inherited by his next-of-kin.
Kuturan and Dwijendra were suspected as Usada-based
thinkers and practitioners. Due to his adept healing abilities,
Dang Hyang Dwijendra or Niratha was frequently addressed by
the title Ida Pedanda Sakti Wau Rauh, or ‘The Divine Priest
who has just arrived’ to Bali.
Various efforts other than the opening of the
new faculty an UNHI have been carried out by the Indonesia Science
Institute or LIPI, to preserve the heritage plants diversely
used in traditional Balinese medicine. Most of the medicine
derives from nature, with the rich collection of tropical plants
found in abundance, from vast and dense tropical rainforest
to the household backyards. A fine example of the scientific
mission in the Botanical Garden in Bedugul,
up in Bali’s highland, with a collection of 1,046 sorts
of plants spread systematically throughout the garden, labeled
with complete information. 117 varieties of heritage traditional
medicine plants thrive. The faculty at the UNHI has followed
suit, growing various herbs in a dedicated garden with remedial
properties known as Taru Premana.
To single out example in literally a million,
the leaves of the cinnamon or Kayu Manis plant is widely used
as a medicine apart from a simple vegetable. Another is the
Hibiscus. These are found in the house yard. A simple remedy
is Loloh, the herbal concoction extracted from the squashed
leaves in water, drunk fresh or cure fevers. Similar methods
from various other natural herbal ingredients are made to cure
extensive list ailments, including kidney stones.
A small number of the Usada lontar kept in
some libraries and museums in Bali. The main Gedong Kirtya lontar
museum and library in Singaraja (Buleleng
Regency) has 182 lontar
in their collection. Numerous sets are kept at The Central Library
of Balinese Culture
in Denpasar, the libraries
of the Indonesia Hindu
University (UNHI) in Denpasar,
the University of Dwijendra, and The Udayana University Faculty
of Letters.
Others remain well-kept, recited and studied
throughout Balinese villages, particularly those belonging to
personal collections, village Puri’s (houses of nobility),
the Balian traditional doctors and heads of the Balinese adat
cultural system. Some
other genuine specimens are believed to have been unwillingly
‘illegally exported’ during the Dutch colonial times,
making it quite an effort to retrieve the inestimable wealth
of knowledge from this heritage treasure. Through the current
effort in its revival, it is believed that Usada will eventually
emerge as a world heritage. |
