australian institute of holistic medicine

In 2002 I travelled to Colombo, Sri Lanka, to study Acupuncture under the world-renowned Professor Anton Jayasuriya.  The trip I undertook was at the suggestion of Doctor Sam and was truly enriching, not only from a natural medicine and acupuncture perspective but it also allowed me the opportunity to pursue another great love in my life, martial arts. 

This story was originally written about my martial arts experience in Sri Lanka for a club newsletter and later a sporting magazine.  I have reworked the original text in to provide students and interested parties at AIHM an insight into a truly wonderful country and people.

At the time of my trip to Sri Lanka I had been studying naturopathy at AIHM for about three and a half years.  I was working full time and this, combine with a full study load, made me feel I would have difficulty in meeting the clinical component to my diploma (as I near the end of my diploma I can now say my worries were unnecessary).

Students at AIHM are no doubt aware we are able to accumulate a number of hours in external clinics, subject to the approval of AIHM.  Doctor Sam suggested I would benefit from the increased clinical exposure offered through attending the Open International University for Complimentary Medicine (OIUCM) in Colombo.  Dr Sam originally studied acupuncture under Professor Jayasuria in Colombo twenty years ago. 

Professor Jayasuriya has written over sixty books on acupuncture and includes the Pope and eminent heart surgeon the late Doctor Christian Barnard as his friends, both of whom he has treated.  Students at AIHM will recognise Professor Jayasuriya as the author of our acupuncture textbook, Clinical Acupuncture.  The man himself is amazing; he has a memory like a trap coupled with a sharp wit that makes for entertaining lectures interspersed with jokes and anecdotes of a life devoted to medicine.  I came away from Sri Lanka feeling truly rewarded having had the opportunity to study under this incredible person who lives by the adage, “if you can’t be the king, be a healer.”

As a student who came to natural medicine through the martial arts, and not one to miss an opportunity, I saw my trip to Sri Lanka as great opportunity to practice my art in Asia.  By studying acupuncture at a University Teaching Hospital I expected to immerse myself deep into the Sri Lankan culture, by adding martial arts to the experience I anticipated another interesting dimension. 

After some tearful goodbyes in Perth I flew to Singapore for a connecting flight on Sri Lanka Air to Colombo.  Whilst waiting to board the aircraft in Singapore I was fortunate enough to be upgraded to first class!  This afforded a sensational view of Sri Lanka from the east coast to the west coast. 

Arriving in Colombo late on a Sunday afternoon, the thing that strikes me most is the hustle and bustle so often associated with Asian cities, even on a Sunday.  The other prominent thing about a Sunday is the cricket.  Every available space seems to be occupied by serious looking cricketers and earnest spectators. 

My driver sent courtesy of the Professor’s House Chandra Hotel and carrying a rough drawn placard bearing “Dr Daniel”, was giving me a running commentary along the journey.  He took me past the Kowbuller Hospital in which the Medicina Alternativa morning clinic is contained.  The clinic is actually placed right down the back of the hospital but more on that later.  Any thoughts I entertained of walking from the hotel to the hospital quickly dissipated as we trundled along the ancient roads for another thirty minutes.

Students are encouraged to stay at the House Chandra Hotel in Mount Lavinia which is a suburb of Colombo about ten kilometers along the beach from the central business district of the city.  Buses and the ubiquitous tuc tucs (three-wheeled motorcycle-like contraptions) mean transport throughout the city wasn’t a problem; it is quick and affordable, if a little hair-raising. 

Whilst checking into the hotel I learned the September 2002 course consisted of eleven visiting students.  Our day was due to commence at 8.30am so I went off to my room hoping to get a good night sleep.   Talk about a city that never sleeps, the hustle and bustle of Colombo goes throughout the night. 

Bright and early the next morning I arrived at the OIUCM Acupuncture Clinic annexed to the Kowbula Hospital.  No one was to be found, but I knew I was in the right place.  The Medicina Alternativa insignia (the Yin/Yang needle design) was in evidence just about everywhere; it was painted on walls and carved into timber benches. 

I loitered around the clinic until the Sri Lankan students began to arrive and proceeded to set the place up for the mornings practice.  Each day there were about twelve to fifteen Sri Lankan students who would participate in the lectures and then provide guidance when it came to needling.  There was no sign of the Professor at this early stage but I was assured he would be along in due course.  It turned out we had a morning lecture to attend before he was to arrive. 

The visiting students arrived and there were introductions all round.  Seven Malaysians, A Canadian, A South American and a wealthy American woman called “Sooria” who was a Sikh living in India. 

Our first lecture took place in a courtyard adjacent to the clinic.  The affable Doctor Salva-Kumar delivered the lecture.  Dr Salva-Kumar is an experienced and knowledgeable Doctor and Acupuncturist.  The man bears terrible acid burn scars to his face, a legacy of Sri Lanka’s violent past.  Like the Professor, it is easy and enjoyable listening to Salva-Kumar talk about the science that he has dedicated his life’s work to. 

Dr Salva-Kumar began his lecture with “Good morning doctors,” a title which was starting to make he feel uneasy, particularly in the grounds of a hospital with sick people everywhere.  I was tempted to speak up, “but I’m not a doctor.”  I didn’t need to, as it turned out the only doctor among us was the Canadian, who was in fact a chiropractor.  The title is bestowed upon all the students at the insistence of the Professor; apparently it puts the patients at ease! 

The morning would start with a lecture on acupuncture theory delivered by one of the three resident Doctors attached to the OIUCM.  The lectures consisted mainly of the subjects covered by AIHM in the first acupuncture unit, 118.  It is recommended students at least have this unit completed before attending OIUCM.

Generally I found the lectures were not well presented. The three lecturers were obviously not communicating with each other and the lectures lacked structure.  This was a little frustrating at first but not necessarily a bad thing.  Just like we all learn in different ways, institutions tend to teach in different ways.  The Sri Lankan way just takes some getting used to. 

Professor Jayasuriya’s lectures were the exception.  He generally addressed us after clinic but seldom touched on the subject of acupuncture (he left that to his staff).  Heavily influenced by his personal philosophies, punctuated regularly by jokes and demonstrative of a man with vast experience in all manner of subjects, cultures and religions, Professor Jayasuriya was an entertaining and remarkable individual.  The man is very charismatic and I thoroughly enjoyed attending his talks. 

At 9.30 am, following the lecture we would prepare for morning clinic at the hospital.  Patients would begin to arrive and wander past our group (most of the lectures were outside) as they made their way up to the clinic.  Professor Jayasuriya would also arrive at about this time too. 

Once Professor Anton took up his post inside the clinic there would be a continual line of patients sitting before him, each person spending roughly 30 seconds in front of the man whilst he inserted the needles.  The patients were required to purchase a set of (12) needles that were kept in a small stainless steel vial; this and a glass jar containing homoeopathic solutions were the only cost associated with their treatment.  The contents of the vial would be spilt onto the Professors’ desk and he would pick the needles out of the water (from the previous evening’s home sterilisation in boiling water) before inserting rapidly inserting them.  Once the needles were in, the patient would move off and sit quietly while the needles did their healing.

Professor Anton was born into a small village out of Colombo, some 76 years ago.  His father was considered a “Medicine-man” who, most likely due to the English occupation, was aware of the benefits of modern medical science.  Anton and his brother were singled out to become modern medicine men, in the English sense they were destined to become doctors.   They both fulfilled their destiny however the young Anton got off to an unfortunate start.  He was born two months prematurely and was lucky to survive infancy.  Apparently he didn’t utter a word until he was thirteen years of age, he claims he has never stopped talking since. 

Having graduated as a medical doctor, Anton settled upon Rhuematology as his specialist field, primarily because Rheumatologists work their own hours, unlike most other areas of orthodox medicine. 

In 1960 Anton was among a delegation of Indian and Sri Lankan doctors who traveled to China to study Acupuncture with a view to re-establishing the lost art to the Indian sub-continent.  Anton describes his training in China as the teachings of great masters at the Academy of Traditional Medicine in Pecking, the Institute of Physiology, Shanghai and many other centers in the People’s Republic of China (Jayasuriya 2000:12).

Medicina Alternativa, The Open International University for Complementary Medicine, was established in Sri Lanka by Anton in 1962.  The Institute of Acupuncture, Homoeopathy and Lasertherapy operates out of two premises, firstly the “morning clinic” at Colombo South General Hospital in Kalubowila and secondly, the “evening clinic” in Colombo 6 (as the suburb is referred to). 

The Open International University is, as the name implies, is open to practitioners and students of acupuncture worldwide.  Every month, indeed from my experience – everyday, people come to see the eminent Lord Pandit Prof Raja Guru Dr Sir Holy Tibetian Lama Healer Anton Jayasuriya. 

The acupuncture clinics are open to the public and treat hundreds of people daily.  Sadly, some of those coming for treatment are seriously ill but unable to afford treatment elsewhere. 

Early in the course we would sit by Professor Jayasuriya observing him work on the different patients.  As we became more confident the Professor would assign a patient to us.  The patient’s care would then become the responsibility of the student for the duration of treatment. 

The student would conduct a minor case history and registration details that included; pulse, tongue diagnosis, blood pressure, respiration, weight and any other relevant observations.  The case history was generally quite brief due to the large amount of people coming into the clinic. 

Following the history taking, the student would take the patient back before the Professor whereupon he would make a diagnosis and prescribe a course of treatment.  The first treatment of each patient generally consisted of administering two to three needles only.  Alternatively, laser acupuncture might be used for the first two or three visits.  Most patients came for treatment every day so by the end of the first week I had built up about seven or eight “regular” patients.  Half of those were treated at the Kalubowila Hospital in the morning and the other half at the evening “Feng Shui” clinic in International Buddhist Centre Road, Wellatwatta.

It didn’t take long before I had built up quite a number of patients.  Usually I would take my people outside into the courtyard for treatment.  It wasn’t unusual for me to have three people sitting around me at various stages of their 30 minutes of treatment.   If a patient was required to disrobe there was a couple of rooms to share.  Similarly, if the patient had to lie down there were plenty of benches undercover but outside the clinic.

Guide-tubes were generally unheard of and it was a case of plunging the often blunt needles into smiling people.  Always smiling, except when the 5 chun needle was called for, in treating Huantiao (a five chun needle is 75 mm long to allow it to pass through the Gluteus group of muscles). 

The 5 chun needle was bent and very blunt, it almost brought tears to my eyes inserting it, let alone the poor patients.  After using the 5 chun needle it had to be washed and placed back inside an oven for continued sterilisation, because as far as I could tell there was only ever one 5 chun needle available!

Despite my intention of pursuing sporting interests whilst in Sri Lanka, spare time was proving quite elusive, I had very little time on my hands for recreation.  I was working from 8.30 am to 9.00 pm, six days a week, studying at the general teaching hospital in the mornings and working in a private clinic in the evenings, come Sunday all I wanted to do was rest.

Another of the visiting students, a South American man named Ridolpho, practiced Tai Chi every opportunity he had.  He would get up a do a routine whenever the urge took him, which was quite frequently.  I began to join Ridolpho on the beach in the early morning and we would practice our different styles, the graceful, flowing Tai Chi as opposed to the hard and fast techniques of Taekwondo.  It was quite common to see the local people performing all sorts of exercise routines on the beach, including some forms of martial arts.

It was interesting to learn many of the Tai Chi moves follow the meridians on the body that are used in acupuncture and TCM, which introduced a novel concept in learning the course of the 12 meridians. 

After a couple of Ridolpho’s impromptu demonstrations we discovered one of the local students belonged to a Kung Fu school and they had a demonstration planned to take place at the evening clinic in the not to distant future.  Ridolpho and I were invited to participate and we both welcomed the opportunity. 

At about this time I also learned one of our lecturers ran a Shotokan Karate school.  They trained on Sunday evening and I was invited along to a session.  Shihan Doctor Tanner-Raja collected me from my hotel and we arrived at the dojo at 6.00 pm.  Even at that time of the evening the weather was still steamy hot and sweaty.  Of course it was like this every night, except now I was nervous.  I still get nervous preparing for a session, even in my own environment, I guess that’s one of the attractions of martial arts, nervous energy drives us to better performance. 

While we were all getting changed I noticed the students were putting on hand-made belts.  I imagine their gis were also handmade but they resembled traditional Karate style uniforms, if a bit tatty (and I was soon to discover why they were so tatty – these guys train hard!).  Improvisation is a way of life in Sri Lanka and washing machines and electricity are luxuries few can afford, hence white clothing is not so bright.

The students, about fifteen in all, ranged in ages from mid teens to a man in his forties.  I noticed this particular student had some major scaring on his chest, which I guessed was indicative of heart bypass surgery.  I was right, Shihan Tanner is also a medical doctor and the man was one of his patients.  He was a green belt of about eighteen months training, and some eighteen kilos lighter for his efforts.  None of the students were particularly large, which reassured me a little, rather falsely as it turned out. 

We started when Shihan Tanner asked me to join him out the front and brought the class to order.  After we had bowed in he said something like, “class, as I promised we have a special guest from Australia who will take you for training tonight, please welcome Doctor Daniel.” 

There was a round of applause and I was completely taken by surprise.   I still wasn’t used to being addressed as a “Doctor” and now I was being introduced as a special martial arts guest instructor from Australia, in an art I know very little about!  Karate was not completely new to me, but Shotokan, I couldn’t even pronounce it!  There really was nothing I could do but get started. 

If it was hot outside, it was doubly so inside the dojo, I was pretty wet even before we bowed in, with the stress of my new found status, Doctor/Instructor – take your pick - and about thirty seconds of warm up exercising and I was saturated, sweat was running into my eyes and ears.  But I wasn’t the only one; I saw large puddles of sweat forming on the concrete floor under most of the others too. 

The class actually went quite well.  Shotokan shares a lot of similarities with Taekwondo.  Short sharp strikes and kicks with minimum distance from the point of execution to point of contact.  I took the students through our style of one-step sparing then moved onto patterns.  I was surprised to learn the basic pattern in both styles is identical however after that things differ markedly. 

The lesson progressed with me demonstrating one of our patterns, followed by one of the Karateka demonstrating a kata.  This wasn’t working out real well, I was doing all the Taekwondo patterns and they were taking it in turns doing one kata each.  By Taegeuk eight the special guest instructor from Australia was destined to expire and become nothing more than a puddle on the floor!  What to do? I know, self-defence!  

Self-defence sounds easy, but where are the mats?  In this dojo there were no pads, no mats and no bags, just concrete floors, which meant these guys, knew how to land and break-fall really well and I don’t.  I’m still getting over an injured shoulder from an awkward Hapkido fall and here I was about to be thrown onto a concrete floor.  Except, hang on, I’m the instructor now and I’m not hitting the floor tonight thanks very much. 

After self-defence I formed a large circle and had students take turns in working around the inside demonstrating combinations on each person in the circle (which is one karate training technique that I remembered).  By the time everyone had worked his or her way around the circle Shihan Tanner indicated it was time to start cooling down. 

After a cool down stretch we had a question and answer forum before finishing the lesson.  It was about this time I learned how little the class understood English.  Shihan Tanner translated most of the exchange.  This was really pleasant; the guys enjoyed hearing about our training back in Australia.  They also thought it novel that I should go to Sri Lanka to study acupuncture and have the presence of mind to take my dobok (training uniform). 

Next it was off down to the beach for curry and replace lost fluids with a well-earned beer, this rounded off a very enjoyable evening. 

Beer and pizza on the beach was fast becoming my staple diet.  The hotel restaurant had a limited menu but it was cheap and the beer was cold.  The most attractive part however was the table’s set up on the beach, between the restaurant and the surf.  It was a very pleasant way to wind down after a long day, chatting about the patients we had been treating and kicking back with a frosty bottle of Lion beer.  It was also very fortunate that the hotel restaurant would actually prepare meals after 9.30 pm because that was generally the time we arrived back to hotel following the evening clinic.

The evening clinic was established for those who worked during the day and could not make it to the hospital.  It was at a large house in an area that I equate with Colombo suburbia.  Although this service was also free it saw a generally different clientele.  I say generally because some people went to both clinics, essentially to be treated twice in the one day!  Both the clinic and the hospital provided quite a social setting with many people coming every day.  This relaxed social atmosphere worked well with me too.  It was nice sitting with the Sri Lanka people exchanging cultural snippets whilst the needles did their work.

The martial art demonstration at the evening Clinic took place mid week, about four weeks into our stay.  It went very well.  As usual it was hot and steamy but this time we were on glazed tiles.  I did fear slipping over in the sweaty puddles left by me and the other players but fortunately this did not happen. 

Wu Shu Kung Fu is famous for it’s flowing beauty and Sri Lankan guys did not disappoint, their style and grace was exceptional.  Wu Shu is actually a style on its own, unlike Kung Fu, Wu Shu is a competitive sport in which spears, swords and unarmed combat take the form of dance-like routines.  Picture a young man moving forward with a sword in each hand executing a perfect forward flip without the swords – or any part of the body touching the ground!  This was amazing stuff.

Incidentally, Wu Shu is perhaps the more correct term for Chinese martial arts, translated it actually means “martial arts”, whereas Kung Fu loosely translated means “well done”.   The Chinese arts are beautiful to watch but very far removed from their Korean and Japanese counterparts.  The hard style of the Tae Kwon Do kicks and punches is in stark contrast with the flowing and circular techniques associated with the Chinese martial arts. 

That night, in an acupuncture clinic in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the two distinct styles exemplified the yin/yang philosophy that is an essential part of acupuncture and the Asian way of life.  These are the experiences one takes away for a lifetime and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet these exceptional martial artists. 

After the exhibition the professor lined us all up, along with many of the Sri Lankan students and even some patients, for a group photo session.  The photograph truly captures essence of Sri Lanka and remains a treasured memory of a very enjoyable and enriching experience.