Many people practise customary law alongside the Western kind and take traditional as well as Western medicine.

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Many doctors, both Western and traditional, feel that "integrated" medicine - a blend of the modern and the ancient - could be the therapy of the future.

CNN: SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH

More important, traditional Asian medicine is now being taken seriously by Western-educated physicians.

CNN: SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH

Officially, 1, 273 Western drug formulations are sold in China, far more than the 564 traditional Chinese medicine formulas, according to the 2005 Chinese Pharmacopoeia.

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Indonesia's traditional herbal medicine, jamu, for instance, costs a tenth of the price of Western drugs.

CNN: SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH