HAMBURG (dpa) – The wellness boom in the United States and Europe has discovered the 5,000-year-old Indian “science for a long and healthy life” – Ayurveda – which until is still widely practised in India and Sri Lanka.
Indian and Sri Lankan Ayurveda doctors receive university training and for most people in these two countries it is still a standard form of medical treatment.
“Ayurveda is the oldest medical system in the world still practised today,” says the Ayurveda expert Birgit Heyn. But little is known in the West about the background of the “gentle Indian art of healing”. It is associated with lovely baths in waters of flower essence, massage with healing herbs, skin cosmetics or diets.
A boom in Ayurveda health tourism has developed in Germany over the past few years. Two-week courses at health spas or healing centres or on offer for prices of between 6,000 and 8,000 marks (2,700 and 3,600 dollars).
Most health insurances do not cover Ayurveda treatment although western doctors concede that the treatment is regarded as beneficial. It is often recommended to patients in danger of contracting chronic disease as a result of their lifestyle and bad eating habits. It supplements western medicine that is irreplaceable in surgery, emergency treatment, and dangerous infections.
“Ayurveda teaches us how to reach 120 years old and to remain healthy,” says Sabine Ziegler from the Euroveda Institute in Bad Rappenau. The therapist for several years ran an Ayurveda therapy centre in Sri Lanka.
Some Ayurveda clinics and therapists in Germany practise the so- called Maharishi Ayurveda named after the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. His movement of Transcendental Meditation (TM) is regarded by churches in Germany as a sect.
Far cheaper and very popular on the other hand are trips to India and Sri Lanka in combination with a beach holiday or cultural sightseeing tours. Ayurveda hotels offer a complete relaxation programme. These include a daily massage from head to toe, followed by a bath in a herbal mixture on which float 1,000 flower petals.
Several travel agencies offer such tours from Europe. The region of Kerala in southern India or Sri Lanka are most popular. In Sri Lanka the hotels on the west coast are the most popular tourist destinations. Two weeks of Ayurveda and wellness-intensive programmes cost between 1,000 and 2,000 marks in addition to hotel and airfares.
Those seeking real health holidays with special monitoring by doctors will find an ideal venue in the Paragon hotel on the southern tip of Sri Lanka. Another real new offer is from the Siddhalepa Ayurveda Health Resort (http://ayurvedaresort.com) in Wadduma near the capital Colombo. It offers luxury bungalows along the beach and a health centre run by Professor Srikantha Arunachalam. He is the former director of the state Ayurveda Research Centre in Colombo and a co-worker of the World Health Organization (WHO) that recommends Ayurveda as a health system for developing countries.
Siddhalepa is a popular brand name in Sri Lanka for natural health products. The family concern also owns a private clinic and a factory producing Ayurvedic medicine, massage oils and tea. Visitors can observe the production on site of natural herbs, sandalwood and garlic being turned into medicine. Several dozen teakwood canisters contain a herbal extract that takes a month to brew. The warehouse is a real treat to the nose.
For those wanting to know more about the art of the science of a long life, a visit to the Greystone Villa in the mountain area of Diyatalawa can be recommended. The centre is headed by a German health practitioner Norbert Fischer who has turned a British colonial style villa into an Ayurveda centre. After arrival patients are checked by a doctor. They join small groups who are treated to special massages and Ayurvedic fasting and nutritional programmes over a two to three week period.
It is an authentic, intensive body experience and not all pleasure as it includes drinking bitter tasting herbal drinks and adhering to strict days of fasting.
