The roots of ramuan are found in both oral and written traditions in Malaysia. They combine the wisdom, teachings and practices of early orang asli populations with those of the culturally more advanced Malay traders and voyagers who first began to settle and develop the region from as early as 1000 BC. Over the millennia, to this already rich blend was added knowledge adopted and adapted from three separate belief systems — those of India, China and the Arab world.

These arrived on Malaysia’s shores via traders, merchants, monks and more. Some simply used the country’s ports, for example en route between China and India, while others settled and prospered in cities such as Kadaram, in what is, today, the state of Kedah. An important Tamil outpost on the ancient Spice Route, it had a flourishing social and economic life. Through Indian settlers, Ayurveda and Siddha, two of India’s ancient healthcare systems, were introduced. Furthermore, such ports also welcomed Arab traders, who brought with them Unani, a medicinal system that originated in Greece with the philosopher-physician Hippocrates (460–377 BC) and was formulated over time by various Islamic scholar physicians in what is now the Middle East.

Also, to this rich mix, came ideas and practices in the form of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Initially introduced by traders and monks, it took root in the country during the 19th to the early 20th century, when successive waves of Chinese settled in Malaysia. New economic opportunities in colonial British Malaya created employment for mass migrations of Chinese from southern China, thereby bringing Chinese healing knowledge and new plants and herbs to the country. This widened Malaysia’s already sophisticated and varied healthcare systems.

In turn, many Chinese settlers in Malacca married local native women and their progeny became the first generation of Peranakan Chinese (local Straits-born) in the Malay Peninsula. In the ensuing centuries, this community prospered and developed an extremely elaborate social, medicinal and culinary culture that continues to this day.  

Add to this the bounty of the world’s oldest and most biologically diverse tropical forests — and you have a rich knowledge and culturally diverse medicinal system that is truly global. It has produced a multi-cultural healing philosophy: truly nurturing mind, body and spirit, it is more relevant today than ever before.