Traditional Medicine in Asia

The regulatory situation
yanmar’s indigenous medicine is
M based on Ayurvedic concepts and has
been influenced by Buddhist philosophy.
Prior to the Second World War, certain
committees recommended that this system
be recognized by the Government, but no
action resulted. Four years after Myanmar
attained its independence in 1948, the
Myanmar Indigenous Medical Committee
was formed. It drafted the Indigenous
Myanmar Medical Practitioners Board Act,
which was promulgated in 1953, with
amendments in 1955, 1962, and 1987.
It established an Indigenous Myanmar
Medical Practitioners Board, whose
functions are to advise the Government on,
inter alia, the revival and development of
Indigenous Myanmar Medicine, related
research and the promotion of public
health; Section 11 specifies as a particular
function of the Board “suppression of
charlatans or quacks who are earning their
living by means of indigenous Myanmar
medicine”. The Board is also empowered
(subject to the prior sanction of the Head of
State) to prescribe the subjects for
examination in indigenous Myanmar
Medicine, to register practitioners, or to
remove their names from the register if a
Indigenous medicine in Myanmar
Indigenous medicine in
Myanmar
U Kyaw Myint Tun
defect in character or infamous conduct is
established. Section 24 of the Act prescribes
that, subject to the provisions of section 23
of the Myanmar Medical Act, in order to
sign a medical certificate required by the law
to be signed by a medical practitioner, an
indigenous medical practitioner must be
registered. Similarly, unless he or she has
obtained the prior sanction of the Head of
State, an indigenous medical practitioner
who is not registered may not hold certain
specified appointments in publicly supported
hospitals and other health facilities.
Section 7 of the Indigenous Myanmar
Medical Practitioners Board Rules, 1955,
provides for the registration of such
practitioners in six classes. The system of
classification is essentially based on the
division of Myanmar medicine into four
branches (Desana, Ayurveda, astrology,
and Vizzadara). In section 9 of the Rules,
details are given of the knowledge required
for registration in the particular classes.
Provision is also made, in section 10, for
authors of works on indigenous medicine
to be registered in one of three classes; it
is indicated in this section that monks may
not be registered as medical practitioners.
Under Section 12 of the Rules, the
Board is to seek ways and means of
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