Do 'kerokan' lovers get rubbed the right way?
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.