The WHO South-East Asia Region is home to some of the world’s oldest and most institutionalized Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM) systems, including Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Sowa Rigpa and a wide range of Indigenous and spiritual healing traditions. Healing practices involve herbalism, pulse diagnosis, detoxification, midwifery and ritual care, often aligned with Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic cosmologies.

Several countries – such as India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan – have fully integrated Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine into national health systems, with ministries, universities and service delivery networks supporting parallel biomedical and traditional care. Community healers, traditional birth attendants and monks are recognized as health actors in both formal and informal settings.

Countries in the South-East Asia Region have contributed over 25 222 documents to Traditional Medicine Global Library, covering materia medica, diagnostic logic, forest medicine and intercultural health planning. Many countries support pluralist governance, while others are building regulatory frameworks. The region exemplifies a deep historical continuity between ancestral medicine and public health innovation.