Bring coconut oil when you see a `dukun'

JAKARTA (JP): Have you ever heard of a dukun patah tulang?

To those not familiar with Bahasa Indonesia, these three words may sound like a riddle, but they actually denote a medicine man whose specialty is the therapy of fractured bones.

Although most Indonesians are familiar with the term, not many of them may know exactly how this kind of therapy is executed.

Complicated handling such as blood transfusions or other medical injections are not part of a dukun's way of putting together fractured bones.

Imagine yourself a dukun's patient. He carefully examines your injuries. Then he asks for some pure coconut oil to be brought before him. The oil is considered "consecrated" and effective for curing after the dukun concentrates his mind and says a short prayer.

Once again he focuses his attention on you, and with another short prayer the dukun massages the oil into the painful parts of your body, beginning with the most serious ones, such as a fractured limb.

He then gives you a list of seven kinds of food which are taboo to eat during the therapeutic process. He asks you to have all the painful parts of your body massaged with the oil three times daily, and to return when the fluid is used up.

This constitutes one round. It may last up to nine days, depending on the quantity of the vegetable oil you put at the dukun's disposal for "consecration."

Similar treatment is given the next time you visit the dukun.

When you feel completely cured, then there is no need to go back to the dukun. This kind of therapy boasts an astonishingly high cure rate.

Perhaps most striking is that the stages of recovery are much shorter than relying on modern medical treatment.

Viewed in this light, Indonesia's so-called magical treatment of fractured bones is not just a step but even several steps ahead of Western scientific therapeutical practices.

Nevertheless, be warned that not all physicians are of the same high standard of quality, efficiency, responsibility and dedication, as is the case with the dukun patah tulang.

--A. Muhardjo