The Dong Medicine
By admin on 2015-01-09

The Dong medicine has made undeniable contributions to the subsistence and growth of the Dong Nationality in the history. The practitioners speak the same language with the local people and know about their life conditions and they only charge very little or even none for the medicines. Those people have constituted an important medical force in Dong Nationality area.

The Dong medicine practitioners are doctors as well as herb collectors, and most of the drugs used, which are mostly fresh products, are collected, processed and used by themselves. This is one of the features in Dong area, a place featuring mild temperature and rich drug sources. Most of the herbs in the residential area can be collected all the year round, among which the flower herbs can be collected during blooming seasons, the fruits and seeds in mature season and barks and rhizomatic herbs in all seasons.
 
The Dong medicine is made through simple processing method with good curative effect, lessened toxicity and good use of effective ingredients. Generally speaking, the rhizomatic and leaf herbs are cleaned, dried and sliced for later use, the fruits and seeds are smashed for immediate use, and the flower herbs are left as they are.

Since the Dong nationality has no written language of its own, its history, culture and medicine have been handed down from generation to generation by oral instructions or in the form of long songs, and literal record about medicine is rarely found.