Cupping and Guasha
Cupping technique is the better known of the two techniques, having appeared in the 1970's film Zorba the Greek. Cupping technique is well known in many southern and eastern European cultures such as northern Italy, Greece, the Baltic states and Poland. I speculate the technique arrived in Europe from the Orient via the Silk Road trade route. The theory behind cupping technique blends well with ancient Greek theories of health and healing. Early Chinese texts refer to cupping as a process to help expel "devils" or malevolent spirits. Similarly the Greeks referred to pathogenic "humours" or "winds" which could be expelled from the body. There is a 3 page overview of these two techniques. Click here
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These two techniques, Cupping and Guasha, are closely related and highly effective. They form part of the "folk medicine" of the Orient and deserve a worthy place in the tool kit of any Oriental Medicine practitioner or bodyworker. They achieve clinical results that are otherwise very labour intensive to attain.