Gua sha in Chinese means to scrape away fever or translated more loosely, to rub away illness by allowing the illness to break out from the body as red-sandy-looking entity through skin.

The main essence of Gua Sha is to scrape body parts and release blocked energy (Qi) and cure ailments. It is an ancient medical treatment that has been around for over two thousand years.

This scraping technique might not originate from China but 200 BC Chinese scriptures describe a scraping method to scrape complaints or diseases from body.

Besides China, Gua Sha can be found extensively in the Southeast Asia countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. This technique is known in Vietnam as „Cao Gio‟ while in Laos, it is known as „Khoud Lam‟. In Cambodia, it goes by the name „Kos Khyol‟ and in Indonesia, it becomes „Kerik‟.