Eastern Medical Massage Therapy Intro
Eastern massage styles have been a part of everyday life for thousands of years, passing down the generations, people sometimes learning from each other at the parent’s knee, and these were seen as an important and integral part of health care. Some London home massage therapists know this type of massage. In China we have the first documented descriptions of massage, dating back around 5000 years to 3000 years BCE (before the Common Era). Chinese Taoist priests practiced “qigong,” a meditative movement revealing and cultivating the vital life force. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is based on the principle that every illness, ailment, or discomfort in the body is due to an imbalance of “qi,” or “ch’i.” Records in India also date back to at least 5000 years ago, and the unique form of medicine known as Ayurveda (the “art of living”), which, amongst other things, describes massage and herbal treatment for various conditions. 3000 years ago, around 1000 BCE, Japanese monks b...