Sastun

by Rosita Arvigo

Book Overview

The compelling drama of American herbologist Rosita Arvigo's quest to preserve the knowledge of Don Elijio Panti, one of the last surviving and most respected traditional healers in the rainforest of Belize.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006250259X
• ISBN13: 9780062502599
• Release Date: February 1995
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully interesting and easy to read, I couldn't put it down!

This book was written very well, but was still packed with ethnobotanical information and experiences. It read like a novel. I enjoyed witnessing the change in Arvigo as she became more accepting of Maya beliefs and less fixated on the thinking of american practitioners; the struggle she had with changing her thinking process and finally being able to kind of mush them together into her own way of healing. For example at first she would introduce a plant and what it was used for and how it had a certain chemical(s) in it that would give it that healing property. But as she learns more about the plants she has to adopt a spiritual understanding on how these plants work to heal. And I loved the ending!

Thank goodness Sastun is back in print!

I read this title when it came out years ago and have collected a few extra copies for loaning out over the years...now my hoarding is over. This is truly a breathtaking story about the fragile links between traditional healing and current day healing. Truly, one of the most remarkable books I have ever read.

Excellent book... beautifully written... could not put this down.

This book is a work of peace and beauty. Each chapter starts with a quick note on unique Mayan herbs and identifies their healing properties. This alone is a treasure. Sastun also gives an insightful, sensitive look into the character a true healer who deeply cares for his patients, mourns his lonliness, yet is energized by his spiritual support he receives in his healing and the thankfulness of his humble, hard-working and trusting Mayan patients. Personally, I loved this book... it reads quickly and easily, is beautifully written with touching humor and is remarkably uplifting.

Save our Rainforests...

This book is about Rosita Arvigo's life in Belize and her apprenticeship with a Maya healer. This is a Spectacular True story. The book captivated me, I could not put it down. Thank goodness she learned and is carrying on the knowledge of the Shaman's. We in the US have gotten too far away from Natural Remedies, replacing them with synthetic alternatives. There is a plant given to us for a cure for any human ailment we have, but this knowledge is dying with our Rainforests. I finished this book learning that Rosita is a courageous women living in the Rainforest of Belize who has dedicated her life to learning about the herbs in the Rainforest. She is dedicated to saving plants destined to become extinct thru moderization of our Rainforest. Thru her work a Medicinal Plant Reserve was established called Terra Nova. I felt great energy while reading this book.

Excellent account of traditional healing in the rainforest.

I can only be grateful that Rosita Arvigo took on this challenge. Her own interests and career in alternative healing practices melded with those of a Mayan traditional healer. She was able to learn from Don Elegio and tap from his knowledge and experiences of his 60 year practice. And all of this essentially time critical, before further destruction of the rainforest and to memorialize Don Elegio's vast knowledge. Here's a real first-hand account of the search for medicinal cures in a rainforest, something we hear about in the media but never quite sure what it all entails. "Sastun" presents a realistic view of an American relocating and establishing a life in a Central American rainforest. One gets a glimpse of the life in a small Belizean village--the meld of Mayan and Catholic culture and the important role that a healer plays in this scene. We're visiting Belize soon and we'll make a specific point of visiting Ix Chel Farms and meeting Rosita Arvigo for a walk down the Panti Medicinal Rainforest Trail. I can only appreciate all that she has done in Belize in furthering the status of traditional healers in Belize and grounding it in science