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Thailand's Bare-headed Doctors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David Gosling
Affiliation:
Director of Church and Society, World Council of Churches

Extract

For the last few years an imaginative programme for training Buddhist monks in basic health care has been in operation in Thailand. The scheme, originally based on two wats (temples) in Bangkok, is now being extended to the Northeast where poverty and malnutrition are most acute. The originator of the programme, Dr Prawase Wasi, a distinguished haematologist, has received several awards for his work, which is increasingly recognized as a major landmark in the implementation of health care in developing countries.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

I wish to express my gratitude to the Thai National Research Council for permission to conduct this research, and to Dr Prawase Wasi, my advisor on their behalf, for his constant encouragement and inspiration. I am also extremely grateful to the following: Phra Maha Narong Cittasobhano, Dr Somboon Suksamran, Dr Surakiat Achananuparp, Dr W. J. Klausner, Ajan Netnapa Kumtong, Dr Sulak Sivaraksa, Khun Suphot and the Komol Keemthong Foundation, and many others. I am also grateful to the British Academy for their generous award of a grant to fund this research.

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2 The misuse of drugs in developing countries has been documented by Dianna Melrose in Bitter Pills (Oxfam, 1982). Prices at pre-1984 devaluation rates.

3 Ibid., p. 74–5. Not only is the price higher, but there are blatant discrepancies in information contained in the accompanying leaflets. The Thai versions for both Valium and Mogadon exclude advice given to English readers on ‘tolerance’ and ‘precautions’.

4 According to Jean Mulholland, ‘few modern drugs are sold in Thailand.’ Either she is over-optimistic or there have been considerable changes since her article appeared in 1979. See Mulholland, Jean, ‘Thai Traditional Medicine: Ancient Thought and Practice in a Thai Context’, in the Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 67, Pt 2 (1979), p. 81.Google Scholar

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15 It is interesting to compare these illnesses with those encountered by Kaufman in his study of Bangkhuad (which is near Minburi and about 50 km to the South of Nongsua). He lists dysentery and intestinal disorders, haemorrhoids, skin infections, malaria, tuberculosis and trachoma, and also describes prevailing attitudes among the villagers to sanitation. Kaufman, Howard K., Bangkhuad: A Community Study in Thailand, Monographs of the Association for Asian studies, No. 10 (Charles E. Tuttle, 1976), p. 173.Google Scholar

16 The Thai names of medicinal plants were obtained from the monks. Photographs were taken, and both were checked by botanists from Mahidol and Chulalongkorn Universities.

17 Traditional Thai Pharmacy has points of affinity with Chinese and Ayurvedic systems; see Mulholland, , ‘Thai Traditional Medicine’ (see n. 4), p. 104.Google Scholar

18 A sphygmomanometer consists of a stethoscope, inflatable arm strap and pressure gauge, and measures blood pressure.

19 Mass ordinations of young men from the Hill Tribes take place at the Wat Benjamabopitr.

20 Most of the herbs are to be found in Ratdawan Boonratanakornkit and Thanomchit Supawita, Names of Herbs and their Uses (Chulalongkorn University, n.d.).

21 For details of Phra Khru Sakorn's views on Buddhism, see Sakorn Sangvorakij, Phrasong Kap Kaan Patanachumchon: Kaan Patiroop Cheewit Chaaw Baan Tii Yokkrabut (The Monk and Community Development: Reforming the Life of the Villagers at Yokkrabut) (Komol Keemthong Foundation, BE 2520, 1977).

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23 Flexner, A., Medical Education in the United States and Canada, Carnegie Foundation Bulletin No. 4 (New York, 1910), p. 17.Google Scholar

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25 Prawase Wasi, Ibid., p. 15.

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29 Ibid., p. 17.

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32 Matthayat Darot, quoted in Mulholland, ibid., p. 88. A detailed summary of Thai anatomy, physiology and symptoms is contained in the same article.

33 Mulholland Ibid., p. 100.

34 Ibid., p. 101.

35 Ibid., p. 111.

36 Melrose (see n. 2).

37 Wells, Kenneth E., Thai Buddhism: Its Rites and Activities (Suriyabun, 1939, updated 1975), pp. 209, 213.Google Scholar See also Bunnag, Jane, Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman (Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 21 (footnote)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; she refers to ‘merit’ rather than ‘karmic’ balance.

38 Civara Khandhaka, Vinaya Pitaka, Vol. V, 166 (Bangkok, n.d.), pp. 178–80.Google Scholar

39 Kaufman, (see n. 15), p. 180.Google Scholar

40 Tambiah, (see n. 8), pp. 58, 227.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., p. 257; for more details about the khwan, see Rajadhon, P. A., ‘The Khwan and Its Ceremonies’, in the Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 50, Pt 2 (1962), p. 119.Google Scholar

42 Tongpan fails to get a loan from his landlord to buy medicine for his sick wife, who dies. Luk Isan depicts the exploitation of Northeasterners by Vietnamese merchants selling medicines.

43 Tambiah, (see n. 8), pp. 130, 271.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., p. 136.

45 Kaufman, (see n. 15), pp. 35, 212.Google Scholar

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48 Riley, James N. and Sermsri, Santhat, ‘The Variegated Thai Medical System as a Context for Birth Control Services’, Working Paper No. 6 (Mahidol University, Bangkok, 1974).Google Scholar

49 Yoddumnern, Benja, ‘The Role of Thai Traditional Doctors’, Research Report (Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 1974).Google Scholar

50 Kaufman, (see n. 15), p. 175.Google Scholar

51 According to Dr Prawase Wasi, ‘traditional medicine being not “officialised” … belongs to the private sector’; Wasi, Prawase (see n. 24), p. 13.Google Scholar

52 Kaufman, (see n. 15), p. 149.Google Scholar

53 It is impossible to generalize as to the usefulness of Ampicillin before promiscuous sex. However, Dr Colin Britton (UK) thought that it would probably prevent some venereal diseases, though the use of condoms was ‘infinitely preferable’. He was also more inclined than some doctors to recommend antibiotics for a wide range of illnesses. His argument was that although antibiotics do not destroy viruses, many viral illnesses induce such a level of weakness (especially in an undernourished person) that a bacterial infection is almost bound to follow.

54 Riley, and Sermsri, (see n. 48), p. 1.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., pp. 43, 13.

56 Ibid., p. 46 (footnote).

57 Ibid., p. 33.

58 Ibid., pp. 16, 24, 37, 52, 53, 54, 58.

59 For clarification of ‘galactic’ and ‘radial’ influences, see Tambiah, (see n. 12), p. 527Google Scholar

60 Ibid., p. 420.

61 For details concerning nammon to cure illness, see Terwiel, B. J., Monks and Magic, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series No. 24, 2nd Rev. Edn (Curzon Press, 1979), p. 251.Google Scholar

62 Tambiah, (see n. 8), p. 133.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., p. 259.

64 Hanks, L. M., ‘Merit and Power in the Thai Social Order’, in the American Anthropologist, Vol. LXIV (1962), p. 1247.Google Scholar

65 Tambiah, (see n. 12), p. 485.Google Scholar

66 Tambiah (see n. 8), ch. 21.

67 Tambiah, (see n. 12), p. 519Google Scholar; see also Gosling, 1980 (see n. 7) p. 430.Google Scholar