Indian Medical Tourism

Some might have difficulty categorizing yoga retreats, Buddhist pilgrimages, and meditation centers as medical tourism, but the unbelievable reach of India’s healing arts is not to be ignored.  Ever since yoga’s birth more than 5,000 years ago, India has enjoyed a constant influx of medical travelers and spiritual students hoping to master and benefit from this most fundamental and revered branch of alternative medicine.  When Buddhism came along roughly 2,500 years later, this only added fuel to the fire and helped position India as the epicenter of Eastern cultural, spiritual, and medicinal progress.

Although Western clinical medicine eventually eclipsed India’s spiritually centered healing arts, the region has remained a veritable mecca for all practitioners of alternative medicine.  In the 1960s, India received a new boost of support when the “New Age” movement began in the US.  India once again became the destination of choice for thousands of Western pilgrims.  What started as a flower child movement has developed into a full-fledged health tourism industry, drawing les bohemes and Manhattan socialites in equal measure.  This mass influx of medical tourists was furthered helped by India’s deep commitment to technology and health care infrastructure.  Not only is India one of the world’s oldest medical tourism destinations, but it is also one of the most popular ones as well.

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