Traditional medicine comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the era of modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement and treatment of physical and mental illness". Traditional medicine is often contrasted with scientific medicine.
Traditional medicine in a market in Antananarivo, Madagascar
Botánicas such as this one in Jamaica Plain, Boston, cater to the Latino community and sell folk medicine alongside statues of saints, candles decorated with prayers, lucky bamboo, and other items.
Curandera performing a limpieza in Cuenca, Ecuador
Sometimes traditional medicines include parts of endangered species, such as the slow loris in Southeast Asia.
Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK), folk knowledge, and local knowledge generally refer to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities.
Tribal Colleges preserve and pass on both general knowledge and, through employing community Elders, traditional Indigenous knowledge. (Leech Lake Tribal College, Minnesota)
The art of Diné weaving is part of the traditional knowledge of the Navajo people.
Indigenous lands are endangered by climate change. Many Indigenous Nations hold traditional knowledge about land management in their bioregions.
Buddhist monk Geshe Konchog Wangdu reads Mahayana sutras from an old woodblock copy of the Tibetan Kanjur.
