ichLinks

Home

Videos

Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Auspicious uprooting of medicine

English List

Description	Indigenous Medicine of Sri Lanka (Hela Wedakama) is an ancient wisdom tradition of healthcare and healing practices inherited by cultural heritage unique to native people. Indigenous medical knowledge and practices dispersed throughout the country are culture-bound repository of ancestral wisdom prevailed through generations. HELA WEDA MAHIMA is a sector-specific ICH production that presents most of ICH elements pertaining to livelihoods and craftsmanship associated with indigenous medical sector. Therefore selection of captions and stories should be very authentic and genuine to represent the heritage of culture and traditional identities of indigenous medicine in Sri Lanka. Auspicious uprooting of medicine. Indigenous medical practitioners respect nature’s healing properties embedded in the plants with the blessings of divine forces dwelling in the trees. They believe that harvesting of such parts from a plant should be done after performing a special ritual. This ritual claims to gain the permission from the deities dwelling in tree.
Manage No	VI00000559	Running Time	1'32''
Country	Sri Lanka
ICH Domain	Oral traditions and representations, Social practices, rituals, festive events, Knowledge and practices about nature and the universe
Videos Photographer	Danister Perera	Year	2018-02-19
Place	North Western Province	File Size	N/A
Definition	N/A	File Format	N/A
Copyright	Danister Perera, ICHCAP

Information source

ICHCAP

https://www.unesco-ichcap.org

List

Materials related to

Photos

PI00005046 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_
Most of the practitioners keep their private collection of palm leaf manuscripts. Those manuscripts are generally inherited; handwritten manuscripts are gifted by masters; and printed books used by the family elders. The palm-leaf manuscripts contain recipes belonged to the family lineage preserved by ancestors. The present generation dedicate for the conservation and continue the knowledge embedded in these sources.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005034 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_
The lenses are made with aquamarine gemstones belonging to the beryl variety called Diyatharippu. It is skillfully polished to suit the user’s andiriya (the status of the visual impairment based on age category) and said to be very cooling to the eye.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005024 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_
After the preparation is made correctly they test the power of the medicine by pendulum method.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005023 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_
Offering votive baskets a practice that pays the vow to deities for their blessings in healing diseases or fulfilling health and property. This is originally evolved in Hindu tradition and modified with Buddhist ethos that is widely accepted by both Hindu and Buddhist communities in Sri Lanka. The items included in the basket kept on betel leaves and accompanied with a coconut which are culturally honored.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005031 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Baara oppu kirima (votives)
Layman society believes the protection of divine forces to cure chronic ailments and offer votive after the fulfillment of the desired appeal on the health of the patient.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005021 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Bahirava tatu (ritual structure for oblations)
The structures made for oblations offered to Bahirava demon who is assigned as the protector of the earthly treasures.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005041 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Beth heppu (medicinal caskets)
Different kinds of easy-to-carry medicine caskets with chambers and made out of different materials are used for storing pills and pastes. These caskets show the skills of traditional craftsmanship as well as cultural heritage of indigenous medical lore. The practice of storing medicine in these caskets is an evidence for the services rendered by the practitioners during their visits to the patients. The pills and pastes have diversified utility mixed with fresh medicine prepared from wild plants.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005019 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Beth nela ganima (auspicious harvesting of medicine)
Traditional method of harvesting from medicinal trees is an art that preserves healing properties embedded in green pharmacy. The worshipping and respecting medicinal trees is a practice generally accepted as a cultural norm. It claims that natural healing properties are preserved throughout the process of manufacturing. Harvesting medicinal plants from natural habitats with preservation of their medicinal properties is an age-old practice that performed by the healer himself.

Sri Lanka 2017
PI00005020 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Beth therima (ritualistic sorting of medicine)
Sorting medicinal raw materials is a very important process in medicinal preparations and in treatment centers run by indigenous medical practitioners this is sometimes done by patients as a part of their healing ritual.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005044 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Bhesajjamanjusava (an ancient medical text)
Bhesajja Manjusavais the only medical text written in Pali language and recognized as a national documentary heritage under the UNESCO memory of the world program. This text belonged to 13th century AD and written by a monk named Atthadassi and prescribed for monastery life as the book does not contain chapters for treatments for women's and children's diesease. This book has more than 60 references from source books existed during that period.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005027 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Bodhi pooja (ritual of sacred tree)
School children attending a special ritual in Kelaniya temple. Bodhi Puja is a special votive performed for obtaining blessings from the sacred Bo tree in healing rituals.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005026 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Devi dos harima (avoiding divine curse by treating elephants)
Elephants are sacred animals. They are believed to have a power to avoid bad spirits. People give them foods and scroll under their belly to get their blessing. People also believe that stepping on elephant dung could help them avoid nightmares.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005035 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Es beth bandima
Applying medicine to the toes for eye diseases is an exclusive technique in indigenous medical system and there are very few number of traditional families that have inherited this knowledge in Sri Lanka. This technique is not found in classical texts written by scholars but the esoteric connection between toe and the eyes are sometimes described in ancient tantric tradition. People consider this as a special healing ritual that gives a miracle result without touching the affected eye.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005022 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Malpela (ritual structure for blessings)
Structures made by tender coconut leaves and decorated with coconut inflorescent and flowers to attract the divine beings to gain the blessings. These structures are called malpela and used for healing rituals.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005036 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Nadi balima
Diagnosis of diseases by pulse reading is a special practice unique to indigenous medical lore. Different family traditions imply different techniques for such diagnosis as inherited by ancestral wisdom through family lineages. The vital touch of physician is considered as a healing touch that minimize the social distance between practitioner and the patient who seeks the divine qualities from the practitioner.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005045 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Panhinda (stylus)
Writing on palm leaf is an ancient art of documenting knowledge. Stylus is used for inscribing on the leaf and it is a traditional writing tool of palm-leaf manuscripts. Different kinds of stylus are used among traditional writers and the letters inscribed by this tool are preserved for millennia after blackening. Most of the ancient temples writing art is taught as a mandatory subject of monastery discipline.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005043 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Puskola poth (palm-leaf manuscripts at BMARI Library Collection)
Palm leaf manuscripts are the most valuable treasure of documented indigenous medical knowledge in written form. They are honored and venerated by the traditional communities as a sacred heritage. The documentary heritage embedded in the indigenous medical lore is mostly preserved in this treasure trove of palm-leaf manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts are found in temple libraries as well as in private custodies of traditional practitioners.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005054 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Veda Gedara (healing spaces)
A traditional house where indigenous medicine is practiced is highly renowned to the lay people. Most practitioners keep ancient furniture and family pictures showing ancestral lineage. They believe that a traditional house like this has a blessed atmosphere and is where ancestral spirits support the physician in the healing process. Also in Sri Lankan traditional culture is very much reputed by general laymen society as a symbol of ancestral identity.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005051 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Veda Gedara (physician's house)
Some houses belonging to well-known indigenous families are declared as national treasures by the Department of Archeology; they are protected by law. A house with such prestige and status reflects social class and the reputation of a family tradition. Family heritage and ancestral reputation are most important factor to show the glory of knowledge that they inherited from the previous generation as cultural symbol.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005039 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Veda panduru betel offers for practitioners)
Physician-patient relationship is a cultural bond that keeps the spiritual harmony represented by betel leaves beyond the monetary values. Respecting and bowing to a physician is a form of recognizing the blessings of good health, as well as the spiritual values and qualities the healer has inherited from the ancestors of indigenous medical lore. In indigenous medical lore there is no monetary value given for the service rendered but the humanistic value is reputed.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005055 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Vedda (indigenous people)
Indigenous people also inherit their own medical lore, which is now disappearing due to social transformation. Some of them occasionally visit the city temple and show their healing practices inherited from ancestors. Some laymen still believe that these indigenous people have good skill of healing with natural remedies.

Sri Lanka 2018
PI00005025 Hela Weda Mahima: The Glory of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka_Yanathara (Taliman)
Wearing talismans drawn with occult diagrams is a prescribed ritualistic therapy for encountering malicious effects on the patients health.

Sri Lanka 2018