දේශීය වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාවේ වාචික සම්ප්‍රදායගත ඥාන සම්ප්‍රේෂණය : කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ඇසුරින්

Abstract

The foremost intention of conducting the research on “The knowledge transmission of the indigenous medicine through the oral tradition with special reference to the Kurunegala district” was to identify the role of oral tradition in transmitting the knowledge of the indigenous medicine. In addition, there were several purposes such as identifying and defining the oral tradition, identifying the nature of public consciousness on oral tradition and indigenous medicine, identifying the studying methods regard to the indigenous medicine and detecting the features of the traditional, oral methods regard to the preparation of indigenous medicine. The sample was selected only from the registered traditional specialists (physicians) in Kurunegala district, due to the limited access to an island wide basis. All these participants are superiors on the respected subject, and it was expected to achieve a fair generalization over the research. The method which has been used for the study was the ethnographic research method. There were several methods which have been used for collecting data in order to accomplish the purpose of the study including semi-structured questionnaires, supplementary interviews, and observation. The supplementary interviews were conducted with the above-mentioned selected sample in Kurunegala district. The size of the sample was not pre-defined, and data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires with the sample until the researcher arrives to the data saturation point along with the relevant process. The method which has been used to select the sample was the purposive sampling method. The researcher was able to reach the data saturation point once sharing 50 questionnaires and conducting the supplementary interviews with the same count. Therefore, the sample size can be defined as 50. Findings were verified by the data which was obtained by the secondary sources in the literature review. The key finding of the study is that the oral tradition has been played a vital role in transmitting the knowledge of indigenous medicine in the past and it is still playing a considerable role in the same aspect.