Sri Lanka keeps two healing traditions alive side by side – classical Ayurveda and the island’s own Deshiya Chikitsa, or indigenous medicine – and Ayurvedic practice here is formally regulated, with doctors registered through the Ayurvedic Medical Council. This day takes you to a centre with a registered doctor in residence, not a hotel spa. It opens with a consultation: pulse reading, questions about sleep, digestion and the season, and an assessment of your constitution across vata, pitta and kapha. Treatment follows the diagnosis – typically a four-handed abhyanga oil massage and a herbal steam bath – and your doctor will say plainly whether shirodhara suits you, or whether something like panchakarma needs a longer stay. Lunch is cooked for your constitution, and the afternoon ends among the medicinal plants your oils are made from.
