Ancient Health Knowledge of India Finally Catalogued and Shared on Web

Via Utne and the Ecologist.

"the government of India recently finished a massive database that puts thousands of years' worth of traditional Indian remedies, medicines, and practices in the public domain" - Utne

I didn't know this, but apparently people in the U.S. and Europe have tried to patent plants, herbs and even yoga poses that have been used for healing in India and other countries for thousands of years. Crazy, right? Patenting was attempted on the spice, turmeric, neem trees and even basmati rice. The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library exposes some of these past attempts at intellectual thievery and thwarts any future bio-piracy by establishing a classification system for wisdom inherent in India's ancient healing arts and sciences .

Right now, you can find information only on the principles, therapies and medicines of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha, but eventually a section on Yoga and all of its 1,500 yoga poses will be included.

"India has effectively made its store of wisdom ‘public property’, which can now be accessed and used by anyone, but patented by no-one." - the Ecologist