International Ayurveda Symposium by Siddhalepa on 5 Oct.

Sri Lanka’s reawakened indigenous medicine and its interwoven culture and lifestyle will receive a major boost when Ayurveda specialists from all around the globe gather for a first of its kind Ayurveda symposium to be held in the country on 5 October at the Siddhalepa Ayurveda Resort, Wadduwa.  

Organised and hosted by the patron of the Ayurveda revival in Sri Lanka, Siddhalepa, the symposium will be held on the theme of ‘Healing Benefits of Ayurveda’. This first-of-its-kind symposium, which is being held in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka, has received abundant blessings from the two ministries as a MICE event to promote medical tourism to Sri Lanka at a time when the country is experiencing a serious downturn in tourist arrivals, post 21 April. 

The global revival and new wave of going back to nature and adapting alternate sources of medicine and cure for many health conditions, disabilities and disorders have put Ayurveda medical destinations back on the map of global travel. 

The global medical tourism market was valued at $ 16,761 million in 2018, and it is expected to reach $ 27,247.6 million by 2024, while registering a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period, 2019-2023.

In Sri Lanka Ayurveda holiday packages are in popular demand with a certain segment of travellers whose typical profile is: high spenders, unlikely to cancel their bookings as their holiday packages are combined with specific Ayurveda treatment. This segment transcends all age groups and demographics and attracts holiday makers with a medical package from all parts of the world.  

Recent writings by Prof. Suriya Gunasekera point out that indigenous medicine, or Hela Osu and Deshiya Chikithsa, in Sri Lanka is even older than Ayurveda medicine in India. 

The healing powers of indigenous medicine is powerful and profound but sadly lost in time, its value diminishing as other alternate more recent medical practices usurped and overpowered it. Slowly but surely, indigenous medicine is making its revival globally, offering a holistic solution for a holiday with treatment, meditation and yoga exercise to their clientele. Sri Lanka is very much in the spotlight as a destination offering high end Ayurveda holidays to a growing number of global Ayurveda holiday seekers. 

The key objectives of the symposium are to position Sri Lanka as a premiere destination for Ayurveda medical tourism, with its rich bio diversity and a variety of medicinal plants, deep-rooted history of indigenous medicine and a tropical holiday destination in the Indian Ocean. The symposium also targets winning over foreign health insurance companies to include Ayurveda treatment in their international medical covers. 

“It is both a wonderful opportunity and a huge challenge to be a co-host at this first of kind symposium where the world’s Ayurveda specialists’ attention will be focused on our nation and its great heritage in indigenous medicine. As a pioneer and leader in the Ayurveda industry, it will be our task to make it an annual event on the international Ayurveda calendar so that the profound benefits of our ancient discovery of indigenous medicine can be widespread among people of today and taken beyond to the next generations on a global platform,” Siddhalepa MD Asoka Hettigoda said. 

Ayurveda practitioners from UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Austria, and USA along with a group of Sri Lankan professionals are among the eminent speakers at the symposium and will lead the discussion, while international media will be present to cover the event.

The proposed topics for the symposium include: History and Evolution of Indigenous Medicine of Sri Lanka; The Scientific Approach to Sri Lankan Ayurveda; The Lifestyle and Day-to-Day Life with Ayurveda; An Insight into a Healthy Meal: Have an Ayurveda Meal as Medicine Now and Prevent Medicine as Your Meal in the Future; Sri Lankan Factor of Ayurveda from a Global Point of View; How Sri Lankan Ayurveda can Contribute for the Benefit of Global Consumers; The Active Role of Ayurveda in Present Contemporary Medicine (Allopathy); and Challenges in Taking Sri Lankan Ayurveda to the World. 

For updates on the International Ayurveda Symposium log on to www.sayussl.org.