Jamu as the core of our Spa practices is one example on how Javanese culture respect Nature as the main source of food and medicine for all life. Indonesia is blessed not only with its rich natural resources but also tradition of preserving this valuable ethno botanical knowledge. It is arguably a dying science amidst modern lifestyle which prefers to embrace genetically modified food and chemical compounds as medicine over natural derived food and medicine. Million of hectares of natural habitat for plants and animals are being cleared to make way for other destructive activities like logging, mining, or monoculture plantation/farming because human forget how precious the various of plants are for our main source of food and medicine. It is through the tradition of Jamu, we will show to people from around the world that we will preserve our biological diversity and our ethno botanical knowledge as our most valuable heritage.
More reading about Jamu.
Adapted from the text of the photographic/essay exhibition, "Jamu: the Herbal Remedies of Indonesia."
Increasing numbers of Americans are drawn to natural medical therapies such as Chinese herbology and the Ayurvedic medical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Borrowing from and contributing to both these systems of medicinal plant use is a close relative, jamu, the traditional plant medicines of Indonesia. Woefully unexplored by students of herbal wisdom, jamu offers many plants and methodologies which are worthy of in -depth study and new to the ethnomedical literature. Rich in flora and tradition, the potential contributions Indonesia's "Apotik Hidup" ("Living Apothecary") could make to world
medical knowledge and public healthcare are great.
Derived from the leaves, roots, bark, flowers, and stems of higher plants as well as the minerals and fungi of Indonesia's abundant tropical forests, jamu come in the form of nonprescription pills, powders, teas, tonics, topical oils, and creams. About 1,000 indigenous plants, from Acacia to Zingiber, are grown or gathered to make jamu. Remedies usually consist of about three to a dozen ingredients and are used to treat just about every malady imaginable, from urinary tract infections to infertility, to cancer, to depression. Jamu to promote general health and beauty are also very popular. There are herbs to: "stay young," "keep breasts firm," "improve male virility" (sometimes called "He-Man Jamu"), "improve married life," as well as a myriad of herbs to aid a
mother before and after she gives birth. It is estimated that 80% of all Indonesians take some form of jamu daily. (A noteworthy consensus for a diverse population -- the world's fourth largest -- of about 191 million people spread over 13,667 islands, sharing 500 language groups). Bought in pharmacies, department stores, street stalls, from door to door vendors, grown in backyard garden plots, or foraged in the forest, jamu use spans ethnic and economic barriers.
From Behind the Kraton Wall
The origin and development of jamu is not completely known. The earliest evidence of internal and external use of herbs dates back to the eighth century. In Central Java, on the walls of the Borobudur temple (the largest ancient monument in the Southern hemisphere and the world's largest stupa -- a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine), there is a relief of a kalpataru tree: a mythological tree that lives forever. Beneath the tree, people crush ingredients for the preparation of jamu. Ancient scripts handwritten in Javanese, such as "Serat Primpon Jampi," ("Handbook of Magic Formulas") and "Serat Racikan Boreh
Wulang nDalem" ("Handbook for Mixing Medicinal Ingredients") contain recipes recorded for the exclusive use of Javanese royalty. In the earliest surveys of flora of the Indonesian archipelago, botanists noted the curative properties of jamu. The Dutch botanist, Rumphius (Georg Eberhard Rumpf) (1628-1702), the "Pliny of the Indies," covered medicinal uses of plants in his classic wo rk on the Indonesian island of Ambon, Herbarium Amboinense (published in 1741), as did Karel Heyne in his 1927 De Nuttige Planten Van Indonesie, and Issac Henry Burkill in his 1935 Dictionary Of The Economic Products Of The Malay Peninsula.
The popular practice of jamu today, especially beauty products, owes much to the once secret herbal pharmacopoeia of the kingdoms based in Solo and Yogyakarta, Central Java. While villagers employed a simpler form of jamu, the heavily guarded Kraton (Palace) recipes included mare ingredients, some of which came from India and China. Good health and beauty was considered evidence of a leader's divine right to rule. Also, jamu was required for the many wives of the king to maintain their youth, fertility, and their strength during child birth; it was also needed for the king to maintain his virility. Solo, once the seat of the former great Mataram dynasty, is now a center for the marketing and large-scale production of packaged jamu. Some of the major manufacturers claim that their herbals are based on the original Solo court recipes. (How these recipes jumped the Kraton walls to become standard home remedies is still a matter of conjecture.)
At the heart of the Javanese tradition of jamu use is a cultural icon known as jamu gendong (jamu -- herbal remedies, gendong -- meaning to carry on one's back). Jamu gendong is usually carried and sold by young, attractive women who reportedly hail from Solo, Central Java. Their generally youthful appearance and beauty is believed to be evidence of the salubrious benefits of regular jamu use. Instantly recognizable in traditional dress, the jamu vendors peddle door to door, their backs laden with recycled Johnny Walker and other beverage bottles full of ocher and khaki-colored potions swaddled in batik cloth.
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