Page 105 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

should not work, are given. But at both levels, regular arm and finger exercises

are advocated, as these prevent the masseur from becoming quickly tired whilst
working.

HOTELIER TURNER HEALER

Pak Hadi may not have had an orthodox training as a masseur and healer, but his knowledge garners
results. Trained in hotel management, this hotelier turned healer lives in the outskirts of Solo, where
he receives patients. In his garden he grows medicinal herbs, trees and shrubs to replenish his
apothecary, each item meticulously tagged with its scientific name. Thirty kilometres (18 miles)
outside Solo he also maintains a considerably larger herbal garden, with the help of four full-time
workers.
Pak Hadi has had considerable success treating cancer patients, diabetes sufferers and people
with kidney complaints, using reflexology combined with herbal preparations and healing
techniques. Out of the 29,000 people who have visited his clinic, he has been able to cure a number
of patients of supposedly incurable cancer through a combination of jamu and reflexology. Breast
cancer patients are cured using papaya roots; liver cancer with daun dewa (Gynura procumbens)
and prostate and bone cancer with a mixture of ingredients from his garden. Medical sceptics, he
reveals, have been known to come to his practice under the guise of requiring a check-up, to see his
techniques for themselves. One such patient was a female doctor who he discovered was suffering
from cervical cancer. He offered to treat her but she preferred Western methods.
Pak Hadi mentions there are over 1,300 medicinal plants, but his formulæ for jamu rely largely
on the use of some 34 major herbs. From these he distills 18 main types of jamu and uses them in
300 to 500 different mixtures. As he points out, many herbs and plants are readily available in
Indonesian markets, but unless the jamu maker has complete knowledge of how to both prepare and
administer them correctly, they will be ineffective. He is pictured above practising reflexology on a
patient.

PAK KARTO’S MISSION

When only 15 years of age, Pak Karto decided to make helping people his life’s work. When he saw