Do 'kerokan' lovers get rubbed the right way?

By Emma Cameron

JAKARTA (JP): Maybe you've glimpsed the ugly red welts on a person hurrying down the street, the discoloration not quite covered by their clothing. The marks look terrifying, perhaps the result of a brutal beating or some hideous skin disease, but if you're Indonesian you would probably just look and smile.

Far from being sadistic monsters, Indonesians simply recognize the marks of kerokan, a traditional method of fighting muscular pain and the common cold. Believed to be the only purely Javanese technique to provide pain relief, kerok is carried out by rubbing a smooth object such as a coin or shot glass down the back from the spine to the edge in lines to create a Christmas tree pattern. Balm is then rubbed over the back. For babies a half onion is used.

The traditional belief is that the rubbing allows bad humors to escape from the body. Although the technique is widely practiced medical knowledge on the subject is scarce. Most practitioners of kerok are simply content knowing that it will provide relief.

Dr. Desi, not her real name, is a general practitioner who doesn't believe that kerok has a scientific basis, "in medical terms, we don't think kerok is a medicine". However with a Javanese background, she does admit to using kerokan occasionally "when I feel a little pain -- muscular pain, sometimes I take kerok ... when I feel very tired maybe, sometimes after sport or heavy activity I use kerok."

However, despite a current lack of medical research on the subject there are doctors who believe there are scientific explanations for the relief that kerok brings.

Dr. Edwin Djuanda is a dermatologist at the Jakarta Skin Center and believes kerok is effective not because of the rubbing but because of the balm administered.

When the top layer or epidermis of the skin is scratched until it becomes red then the blood vessels are reached and the balm can be absorbed into the body quickly.

"The active ingredients come through the skin, through the body and through the blood flow. There is very little effect without the balm," he said.

Karyati is a 26-year-old food production worker who, like most poorer people, rarely uses a balm. Among the oils used are kerosene, cooking oil, body lotion and medicated oil.

Karyati uses the oils simply for the purpose of lubrication and believes the type used is simply a matter of personal choice, "It depends on the person, if the person usually uses kerosene and then they use body lotion, perhaps it won't do anything."

She believes the healing powers of kerok come from its ability to break fevers, "usually afterward I perspire and then I feel better".

According to those who practice kerok, physical symptoms of illness also show up when kerok is administered. The extreme redness of the skin after kerok is done, only ever occurs when a patient is ill.

According to Dr. Djuanda this is because the body is working toward trying to destroy the infection or disease. The red pigmentation is caused by an increase in white blood cells or inflammatory cells which are created to fight the enemy.

Even the Christmas tree pattern used for kerok can be explained as simply the most painless pattern with the lines running parallel to the bones.

With a Javanese and Chinese background, Djuanda is saddened by what he sees as a loss of traditional beliefs to western science in the younger generation.

"My three daughters don't practice kerok. Minors don't like kerok, we must popularize this, yes," he said.

However, kerok continues to be a popular form of alternative medicine in Indonesia especially for those who cannot afford doctor's bills and remains a drug-free alternative in many households.

Furthermore with findings such as those at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in December which found that pain-induced activity in the brain subsided after acupuncture was administered, traditional techniques of healing are closer to being scientific fact rather than mystic mumbo jumbo.