TCM, acupuncture gain popularity in Indonesia

Well-known clinics such as those operated by state-owned Universitas Indonesia and Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta offer acupuncture therapies to reduce cancer patients' pain.

Universitas Indonesia, many of whose graduates have risen to leading positions, is among state and privately owned higher educational institutions that offer acupuncture studies. The institutions are located on Java, the nation's most-developed island, and in other regions.

Acupuncture training courses are also provided for practicing medical doctors and even for the less-educated. One of the foundations providing such courses, Yayasan Pendidikan Akupunktur Tseng Kai, offers acupuncture training for doctors and amateur enthusiasts.

Graduates who obtain acupuncture certificates must obtain a government permit to open a practice.

Foundation leader Juliana Tjandra said her acupuncture clinic, although separate from Yayasan Pendidikan Akupunktur Tseng Kai, remains popular among those in high positions.

The foundation was launched by her father, the late Tseng Kai, an acupuncture graduate from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

Her grandfather and Tjandra, who was 21 at the time, played an active part in founding and operating the acupuncture therapy unit at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, which she is extremely proud of. The unit, which started by training 20 doctors to become acupuncture specialists, gained government recognition in 1963.

Tjandra, who pursued an advanced degree in acupuncture at Xiamen University in Fujian province, helped her grandfather and another acupuncture doctor especially brought in from China to treat then-Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and his wife.