Traditional Medicinal Knowledge in North Eastern Region of India: A Case Study of their health Care practices among the Meetei Maiba healers of Thoubal District, Manipur
Journal Title: International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS) - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
Traditional healers are still pivotal manpower resources of health care provisioning with a wide range of healing methods in Manipur, North Eastern Region of India. Meetei Maibas are local health care male healers and their continuity of knowledge and practices are inextricably linked with the indigenous flora and fauna and social recognition. Their system of health care knowledge and practices are transmitted through oral tradition, direct observation, and hands-on experience from one generation to the other. Their health care practices are locally known as Maiba Laiyeng Pathap or Maiba health care system of treatments. The present paper is an outcome of my fieldwork conducted in the valley district of Thoubal in Heirok Kendra among the Meetei Maibas in Nongpoksekmai, Sikhong, and Heirok villages respectively. Altogether, 9 Maibas who practically possessed the knowledge and skills of Maiba Layeng Pathap were interviewed in their respective residences. Direct Observation, face to face in-depth interviews, recording and still photographs were used in the fieldwork. Above all, how they acquired the knowledge and practices and the queries for types of ailments, treatments and the medicinal plants they utilized, the method of preparation, the frequency of use, which medicinal plants used as daily food consumption, and also the evidence of healing testimonies were documented. The paper also discusses the type of Meetei Maiba healers and their traditional knowledge and methods of health care treatments. The continuity of this particular type of health care practices will benefit within and across the country at large scale if their health care knowledge and practices of the economic medicinal plants and their uses are properly studied. The paper also brings out the present situation of Maiba Laiyeng Pathap in Manipur and future prospects.
Authors and Affiliations
Asem Tomba Meetei
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP31087
- DOI -
- Views 387
- Downloads 2
Reaching the Poorest:Role of Microfinance in Poverty Reduction of Self Help Groups in Rangjuli Revenue Circle of Goalpara District of Assam,India
Microfinance is essentially a financial service, routed to the poor generally through Self Help Groups (SHGs), in sheer belief that it will enhance their available choices, opportunities and empower them both socially a...
Study on Relationship between Stress and Adjustment among Adolescents
In present study an attempt has been made to understand the relationship between the level of stress and adjustment among adolescents. A total number of 600 adolescents (300 boys and 300 girls) in the age group of 15 –...
Views of Teacher educators towards Two-year B.Ed. Programme of West Bengal
Every concerned person talks about quality education. There have been reforms for total quality education. Programs, plans and policies have been devised to achieve the quality. Unfortunately we could not get expected r...
Satabarsher Choukath Periya Bharatiya Jadu
The term ‘Magic’ is originated from Greak word ‘Mageia’ .A time was when magicians were associated with devil and occult from social point of view. Though the performance of magic and its practice is historical and very...
A Comparative Perspective to the Mythological Concept of Escape from Time: An Archetypal Study
Time, the concept had ever been a matter of baffling obscurity to the humankind. Measuring of time may be an extension of man‟s quest to define life itself, an inborn crave to count the uncountable, and to define the in...