| On the way to Chikjisa, the Temple of the Pointing Finger, in South Korea, my travelling companion fell and twisted her ankle. The monks saw her limping around the grounds and one of them offered to give her some treatment. I expected him to use traditional eastern medical practice, maybe acupuncture or something, but I was surprised when he put a little cupping device to her foot and squeezed it a couple of times to create a vaccuum. The blood was drawn to a little red circle under her skin. The bleeding was then performed with a little spring-loaded needle that looked like a pen. He gave her about thirty jabs with a big smile on his face, then used the cup the suck the blood out. One of our hosts said it was not serious, because the blood was red, rather than black. She said the bad blood had to be removed. The monk repeated the process twice more. The next day I went home, but my injured friend stayed to have more holes poked into her the next two days. |
