If you stroll through China Town and push open the door of one of the capital's old shops, you might be lucky enough to discover a traditional Chinese pharmacy. In the back of the shop, these beautiful wooden cabinets hold the treasures of this age-old traditional medicine.
Behind the counter, the tools used to prepare the remedies: pestle, grinder, scales... It's all there... And yet the preparation of remedies seems to be the preserve of another generation. Traditional Chinese pharmacies are becoming increasingly rare. Are they about to disappear?
Dazzling Star, the story of a family-run boutique
Mr Ho Ng welcomes us to his shop in China Town, on Sun Yat Sen Street. The shelves are densely packed with everything from tins, bags of mines, dried grains, dried mushrooms, a few sausages hanging from the ceiling, joss paper, candles and other items used in religious ceremonies at the pagoda, to kitchen utensils. And then, at the back of the shop, that famous big wooden cupboard with drawers covering the whole wall - that's the pharmacy!
Born in 1942, Mr Ho Ng is the eldest in a family of 4 boys and 4 girls. A retired maths and chemistry teacher, he took over the shop in 2007, which was opened by his father in the 1950s and then taken over by his uncle. Even as a child, he loved hanging around the shop and watching his father prepare traditional remedies. He would have loved to learn Chinese medicine, but unfortunately he never got the chance.
Mr Ho Ng's father came from China in 1935-40. A doctor practising traditional Chinese medicine, he fled the war in his country to set up shop in Port-Louis. As a doctor, he had his own consulting room and as a pharmacist, he prepared the prescribed medicines.
Mr Ho Ng remembers that there were 5 or 6 such Chinese pharmacies in the neighbourhood at the time. In fact, all the Chinese shops had a pharmacy section. But now they've all closed.
"I am a bit like the last of the Mohicans”
Patients come here for diabetes, cancer or kidney stones. Following a doctor's prescription, written entirely in Chinese, Mr Ho Ng meticulously weighs, chops, grinds and cuts the ingredients, then packages them in paper cones in daily doses to be infused for a week or a month, depending on the treatment.
He shows us a box of reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), a mushroom with well-known virtues used in cancer prevention treatments, reducing metastases and even alleviating the side effects of chemotherapy.
What is the future for traditional Chinese pharmacies?
Dazzling Star is the only traditional pharmacy we found in Port Louis that is still in business. The owners of the other pharmacies we visited in the area had stopped practising years ago. They are the new generation, the cupboard is still at the back of the shop, the drawers are filled with leaves, bark and other flowers and seeds, but they no longer do traditional medicine like their fathers did. It seems that these skills have not been passed on, and with them a part of the ancestral culture.
One of the main obstacles to the transmission of these knowledge seems to be the use of the Chinese language and the loss of the ability to read Chinese characters by this generation. It is therefore difficult to decipher prescriptions written entirely in Chinese by traditional doctors.
What's more, a growing number of medicines are now available in capsules, ointments and other pre-packaged powders or herbal teas that are sold over the counter and do not require a prescription. These remedies provide an alternative that is often considered easier to access and use.
A new generation...
Although traditional Chinese pharmacies are becoming increasingly rare in Port Louis, Mr Ho Ng remains confident. According to him, there are newcomers and even a future in this sector. In fact, there is a shortage of Chinese pharmacies in Mauritius in relation to the number of users of this medicine, and the Chinese embassy in Mauritius is aware of this problem and is encouraging traditional Chinese doctors to set up in Mauritius. In fact, it seems that China is promoting this tradition all over the world.
People are contacting Mr Ho Ng to take over his pharmacy, whether they are newly qualified Mauritian doctors of Chinese medicine returning to their country, or Chinese doctors coming to Mauritius to consult.
The peculiarities of the Chinese pharmacopoeia
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a thousand-year-old medicine that is unique in that it is holistic, looking at the body as a whole. According to this medicine, the organs are interconnected, the heart, body and mind are one, and everything in the universe is interconnected. TCM therefore aims to maintain harmony both within the body and between the body and external elements.
According to this medicine, each individual has a particular constitution and balance. To maintain this balance, TCM uses 5 main practices: pharmacopoeia, acupuncture, dietetics, massage and energy exercises (Qi Gong, Tai Chi).
Although this medicine is traditionally practised by many Chinese, it has been widely adopted by other cultures around the world, including Mauritius. It is seen as an alternative to biomedicine and new generations continue to turn to this type of natural, herbal medicine, which has fewer side effects on the body.
A variety of traditional practices in Mauritius
Because of the history of its people, Mauritius is home to a wide variety of cultures and traditional medical practices, or tradipratiques, which have arrived from all over the world with the various waves of settlers. From herbal teas and grandmother's recipes to Ayurvedic medicine, the healing practices of rubbing, cracking, passing and marking, prayers to various deities, etc., Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the options available to Mauritians. This ancient Chinese knowledge and practice came to the island with the Chinese migrants and has been passed on and continues to be practised in Mauritius.
Although TCM does not use local plants, other traditional pharmacopoeias on the island do. TCM only uses imported plants certified by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Pharmacy Board.