ABSTRACT

     The objectives of this research were (1) to study the history and ethics of Thai traditional medicine, (2) to study the Buddhadhamma principles (the Buddhist principles) in Thai traditional medicine, and (3) to analyze the Buddhadhamma principles in Thai traditional medicine. This documentary research was the analytic study of qualitative data in Tripitaka (the Buddhist Scriptures), books on Thai traditional medicine, the pharmacopoeia of Thai traditional medicine, the Practitioner of Thai Traditional Medicine Act, and documents related to the history of Thai traditional medicine, the medical ethics and the doctor’s and nurse’s codes of ethics.    

          The research findings were as follows

          1. For the history and ethics of Thai traditional medicine, it was found that Thai traditional medicine or the traditional medicine referred to treatment or health care in both normal and abnormal (ill) conditions, described by the medical practitioner theory according to the balance theory of elements in the human body, anatomy and physiology, and the theory of medical sciences.It was the treatment and health care of Thai people in accordance with Thai culture through herbal treatment, herbal sauna, massage with a bag of heated medicinal herbs, and Thai traditional massage, considered as an identity of Thai tradition.

             2. The Buddhadhamma principles in Thai traditional medicine was the doctrine discovered and declared by the Buddha in order to teachtractable beings to release frommental intoxications or defilements. The Buddhadhammaprincileswere the ethical criteria the Buddha appointed as the religious standards. Also, the Buddhadhamma principles in Thai traditional medicine were the Four Noble Truths, the Three Characteristics, and the Four Holy Abidings (Four Sublime States of Mind) with the purposes to have people lead their lifeideologically and to make them perfect with intelligence and definitive happiness, the human supreme perfection. Buddhism granted Thai people a motto of dependence upon oneself in order to deal with disappointment or suffering. When they were unable to clear up those problems, they had to accept the truth of human life and acknowledge that one had to depend upon oneself.

             3. The analysis of the Buddhadhamma principles in Thai traditional medicine was found that Buddhism had four bases of sympathyor the principle for coexistence in society for Thai people. That principle referred to the performance of duties in society, harmony, custom, munificence, kindness, and considerateness. The teaching of the Buddha was targeted practical consequences for all people to deal with their own living lifein this world at present. For example, the Buddha taught human beings to know themselves and understand their own bodies and mindsin order to nurture their bodies and minds happily.

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