The Cha-laew: Signature of Traditional Thai drug compounding
The Cha-laew is made of a strip of bamboo wood, weave into a long tail star-like shape of three, five or eight points. In the ancient times, it represented the boundary of specific area. Folk healers pinned down Cha-laew on the banana leaf that covered the boiling pot to guarantee the quality of herbal medicine inside and prevent the addition of adulterants or even evils or bad spirits.
