Filipino folk medicinal practices are taking center stage among visitors looking to try traditional modalities of healing. Famous among these is “hilot”, a term derived from a local word meaning massage. The practice dates back to the beginnings of Philippine civilization and shares considerable practical resemblance to the traditions of yin and yang in Chinese acupressure. To the hilot practitioner, the concept of health and disease is based on the balance of init (hot) and lamig (cold) or hangin (wind). The body is viewed as a network of pathways of energy and, when there is a balance of the forces of init, lamig and hangin, the body is well and free of disease. In contrast, an imbalance in these elements results in a blockage in the flow of energy within the body and leads to disease. A highly intuitive touch therapy made even more unique with the use of coconut oil and warm strips of banana leaves, hilot is customized to the needs of each client in order to remove this energy imbalance.
Other wellness rituals include the oslob, using medicinal herbs and minerals with steam or smoke induced heat expelled through perspiration; the banos, which entails the rubbing of oils or minerals all over the body with a washcloth; the paligo, a bathing practice using decoctions of aromatic herbs performed after a bout of illness or childbirth; the bentosa, cupping of heated glasses applied on the body surface mainly for cold and wind diseases; the kurot or the pamula, which require pinching, rubbing stones or tapping bamboo sticks on the skin until it becomes reddish to release the excess cold and wind from the body.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT THE PHILIPPINE DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM
