AYURVEDA FINDS HUGE TRACTION WITH CHINESE

The Time of India
Saswati Mukherjee,TNN
Thursday, September 4, 2014

Bangalore: The popularity of the time-tested traditional healing system of ayurveda seems to have crossed the border and impressed the Chinese too. If the number of aspirants for courses run by Bangalore-based Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) is any indication, the new adherents of ayurveda are people of Chinese origin from Southeast Asian nations.

FRLHT runs a foundation course on ayurvedic nutrition and lifestyle thrice a year in Bangalore, and nearly 80% of students in each of the 10-member batches are from Southeast Asian countries. Buoyed by the response, FRLHT is conducting the course twice a year in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, among other countries. "Our Chinese-origin students come from diverse backgrounds.

While some are engineers, there are students and medical practitioners as well," says Girish Kumar V, training coordinator for international student programme at the Centre for Health Education, FRLHT. At least 10 Chinese, who do the foundation courses, enroll themselves for the two-year diploma in ayurvedic diet and lifestyle. Most of them have some knowledge about the 2,000-year-old traditional Chinese medicine, which includes various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage, exercise and diet.

Toni Goh from Singapore came to FRLHT with a purpose: To know more about ayurvedic diet and lifestyle. "I want to introduce it to the Chinese community in Singapore and China," he says. His foundation course batchmate Pemla wants to learn more about ayurveda nutrition, and Chu Ning from Singapore is interested in the ayurvedic way of health maintenance. A delegation from Nanhua University in Taiwan will visit the FRLHT campus in Yelahanka on September 12 to explore the possibility of offering ayurveda as a course in their institution. "The time-tested principles of ayurveda are drawing Chinese students. The concept of diet, nutrition, etc, is more elaborate in ayurveda, which makes it popular with students across the globe," said Girish Kumar V, training coordinator for the international student programme, Centre for Health Education, FRLHT.