page_title: Traditional Cambodian medicine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Traditional Cambodian medicine / History
caption_attribution_description: fto prosal
context_page_description: Traditional Cambodian medicine comprise several traditional medicine systems in Cambodia.
  Healers and herbalists of Cambodian traditional medicine are collectively referred to as Kru Khmer. There are many regional variations of the practice and herbal knowledge of traditional medicine within Cambodia. Traditional Cambodian medical practices are widely used in Cambodia.
  Even though health is among the Cambodian governments five most important issues, the healthcare system in the country is inadequate and people in more remote villages in the provinces have difficulty obtaining health care. This situation is reflected in many developing countries and, in part for this reason, the World Health Organization is promoting the use and preservation of knowledge of several traditional medicines in many of these areas across the globe, including Cambodia.
  Because of the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Vietnamese populations of Cambodia, traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Vietnamese medicine are also practiced and represented in the country.
context_section_description: The exact origins of traditional Khmer medicine (TKM) remains unclear, but it is believed to have been founded and formalised from the Nokor Phnom period (Funan era) to the 9th century, during the Angkorian period. It is influenced by Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) and traditional Chinese medicine. These foreign frameworks and practices were mixed with local beliefs and superstitions to create the foundations of TKM. The temple of Neak Poan is believed to have been the central temple for Khmer medicine during the Angkorian era. Jayavarman VII, who reigned c.1181–1218, ordered the construction of 102 hospitals (‘halls devoid of disease’ or arogyasala) throughout his realm.
  Khmer inscriptions investigated by French archeological researcher George Cœdès in the early 20th century, confirmed the existence of 15 hospitals (out of Jayavarman VII's 102 hospitals) across the kingdom. Those 15 hospitals are :
  Inscriptions in these hospitals describe the number of medical staff and their different roles such as hospital managers, drug combiner staff, water boiler staff, drug grinders and drug distributors. An inscription in Sai Fong has become the most renowned quote of King Jayavarman VII: "Diseases of the people make him more painful than his own illness."
  Prasat Chrey (Khmer: ប្រាសាទជ្រៃ) and Prasat Lek 8 (Number 8 temple) (Khmer: ប្រាសាទលេខ៨) are temples in Sambor Prei Kuk that were previous hospital chapels during the Chenla era. Inside the hospital chapels, ground or smashed traditional herbal medicines extracted from plant trunks, roots and leaves were mixed with purified water. The drug liquid was then poured over a Shiva Linga to enhance the effectiveness, after which it flowed from the Linga base through the outside part of the chapels via a drainpipe connected to the north side of the buildings. Here, patients, who were waiting outside the hospital, finally received the drug liquid.
  The knowledge and practice of TKM was written down on palm-leaf manuscripts, written in the pali language, and stored in temples all over the empire. Most of these original Khmer medicinal manuscripts are thought to have been destroyed in the Cambodian civil war, but some still exists and they represent some of the most reliable sources to the origins of TKM.
  Surviving ancient Khmer medical texts shows a considerable systematization of medical knowledge, but an institutionalized Khmer medical system with associated doctrine-based practices, did not survive into the modern age in Cambodia. Scholars and historians have long wondered what happened to this grand medical tradition and the 13th century is considered a crucial tipping point in the history of traditional Khmer medicine. The gradual decline of the Angkorian Empire and the religious shifts to Theravada Buddhism appears to have affected the original medical culture greatly. The Siamese conquest of Angkor is not thought to have destroyed the medical traditions, but rather appropriated the medical knowledge and preserved it as Thai instead of Khmer. The French colonial era is also thought to have affected and prevented the rise of the ancient Khmer medical tradition. Unlike India for example, where dialogue and knowledge exchange between initial colonialists and Indian doctors took place, the colonial presence beginning with the 18th century in Cambodia was almost instantaneous and the French demanded and relied upon Western medicine from the very start, abolishing the local Cambodian medical traditions altogether. The following independence and warring upheaval of Cambodia during the civil war, the Khmer Rouge regime and the Vietnamese occupation, all continued this suppression of medical traditions, in particular the spiritual aspects. This centuries long pressure have resulted in fragmenting the Khmer medical tradition, sometimes with local reinventions emerging.
  Historically, three sub-categorizations of the Kru Khmer profession have been noted: kru pet (Khmer:គ្រូពេទ្យ), kru thnam and tmup. Kru pet were the most revered and theoretically educated. They studied the palm-leaf m
caption: Jayavarman VII ordered a total of 102 'halls of diseaselessness' across the Angkorian Empire in the 12th century, serving the general population.
exif: {}