Young Indonesian doctors attend an acupuncture training course run by TCM doctor Juliana Tjandra, vice-president of the World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In the Indonesian town of Merauke, population 130,000, there is only one traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, store. Such is its reputation, the shop also takes not-so-traditional online orders for their wares. 

Store owner Siswanto, who like many Indonesians has only one name, said he was surprised that athletes and officials who attended a sporting event in the town in October were still using TCM products they bought from his store back then. 

In total, some 7,000 officials and athletes from a number of sports attended the annual National Sports Week, the country’s biggest sporting event, which was staged in Merauke and two other places which border Papua New Guinea. Merauke is located in Indonesia’s easternmost region of West Papua.

As COVID-19 cases recede in the world’s fourth most populous nation, people attending the event were using TCM products from the shop to maintain their health and stamina and treat their injuries.

“They could have bought these items in their hometowns on Java and in other places outside of Papua,” Siswanto said.

Perhaps the popularity of his store, Toko Obat Saudara, has something to do with the fact that it started trading in Merauke 30 years before Indonesia gained independence from Dutch rule in 1945. The business was initially owned by a Chinese-Indonesian.

Siswanto said Merauke residents, including those in high positions, turned to the store as an alternative source of medicines. For example, some patients with gallbladder problems preferred TCM medicines to those prescribed by hospital doctors.

Juliana Tjandra treats a patient at her clinic. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Siswanto said TCM stores can also be found in Jakarta, the capital, and other large cities on Java, one of the main Indonesian islands. These outlets include Saras Subur Abadi, which is based in Jakarta and is one of the country’s largest TCM importers.

There are TCM outlets all over the Indonesian capital but they are mainly found in Chinatown, the oldest part of Jakarta’s downtown area. They include Tay Seng Ho and Ban Seng, which have been operating there for 100 and 90 years respectively. Both sell medicines and tonics produced with ingredients imported from China.

Ban Seng owner Yuan Chang said that his great grandfather, who was originally from China, opened the business in 1933, primarily to serve Chinese immigrants during the Dutch colonial period. 

Ban Seng imports more than a dozen TCM ingredients from China, and mixes them according to customers’ requirements.

Due to the pandemic, it has only one sinshe, or TCM doctor, to check the pulse on a patient’s radial artery to determine his or her condition and decide what medication is needed. Pulse-checking is the method typically used by TCM doctors, who also consider prescriptions a patient is given by “modern” doctors.

Acupuncture therapies are also popular in Indonesia, although they are not practiced in Merauke and other remote areas of the country.

Patients, including non-ethnic Chinese, use acupuncture, like TCM, to treat things such as headaches, pain, migraines, depression after childbirth, diabetes and obesity. Acupuncture is also considered by some as a treatment which can improve the complexion. 

Traditional Chinese medicine is packaged at the Ban Seng Medicine Store in West Jakarta, Indonesia, on Feb 5, 2020. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Well-known clinics, such as those operated by state-owned Universitas Indonesia and Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta also offer acupuncture therapies to reduce the pain suffered by cancer patients.

Many graduates from Universitas Indonesia, which is just one of the state and privately-owned higher education institutions which offer acupuncture studies, have risen to leading positions in the country.

Most of these institutions are located on Java, the nation’s most-developed island, but some are in other regions.

Acupuncture training courses are also provided for practicing medical doctors and even for the less-educated. One of the foundations providing such courses, Yayasan Pendidikan Akupunktur Tseng Kai, offers acupuncture training for doctors and amateur enthusiasts.

Graduates who obtain acupuncture certificates must obtain a government permit before they can practice.

Foundation leader Juliana Tjandra said her acupuncture clinic, although separate from Yayasan Pendidikan Akupunktur Tseng Kai, remains popular among those in high positions in society.

The foundation was launched by her father, the late Tseng Kai, an acupuncture graduate from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Tjandra — who is vice-president of the World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion — and her grandfather played an active part in founding and operating an acupuncture therapy unit at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. 

Traditional Chinese medicine is displayed at the Jakarta Fair on July 9. (FLORENTINA WULA / FOR CHINA DAILY)

The unit, which started by training 20 doctors to become acupuncture specialists, gained government recognition in 1963.

At one point, Tjandra, who pursued an advanced degree in acupuncture at Xiamen University in Fujian province, helped her grandfather and another acupuncture doctor, specially brought in from China, to treat former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid and his wife.

Meanwhile, in West Jakarta, Hendra Chen takes pride in his vocational diploma in acupuncture, which he obtained from an institute of technology, science and health in Malang, East Java. After attending advanced courses in acupuncture in Beijing and Guangzhou in 2008, he opened an acupuncture clinic.

Chen said he is optimistic that acupuncture will become even more popular among Indonesia’s 275-million population, adding that it is now increasingly integrated with modern Western medicines. The 42-year-old operates five clinics in Jakarta.

“Nowadays, many people are smarter. They limit their use of medicines, but they like acupuncture, as it does not have any medicinal content,” Chen said.

He distributes acupuncture needles to practitioners in the provinces, where he exchanges knowledge and experience with them and local doctors.

Chen is highly appreciative of the Indonesian government for providing ample room for TCM and acupuncture to develop.

“Sixteen years ago, acupuncture was mainly known by ethnic Chinese, but over the past 10 years, interest in it has developed among rising numbers of indigenous Indonesians,” Chen said.

For many Indonesians, acupuncture is an alternative that is effective and less costly than other forms of medication, he added.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.