Thursday, 16 June 2011

Tok Bomoh (village doctor)

In almost every Malay village or settlement, there is a doctor called Tok Bomoh. Of course the village doctor or Tok Bomoh is not trained in Western medicine. The Tok Bomoh practices folk medicine and sometimes adds in witchcraft and chants. The use of smoke and genies (jin) will render the Tok Bomoh's practices as unIslamic but patients are often unsuspecting and will believe every word of the Tok Bomoh. Some Tok Bomohs are good while others are quacks. Quack or not, the lay uneducated patient can never tell apart so the Tok Bomoh business thrives in Malaysia and the region. 
The sessions I have observed are not described in medical textbooks and students will need to see Tok Bomoh practices first-hand. Most Tok Bomohs are male doctors. Female village doctors are called bidan and attend to mothers and their newborns and sometimes even toddlers and pre-schoolers.