Ayurveda took a prominent place in an international traditional medicine education dialogue in China this week, as an Indian Ayurveda educator participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s 2026 Forum on Traditional Medicine and signed an education partnership with a leading Chinese traditional medicine university.
Dr. Dhanwantari Jha, representing Ayurved Nidhi and Ayurveda from India, was invited to participate in the forum’s Traditional Medicine Education Dialogue, held in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, on Sept. 17. The session brought together more than 100 experts, university representatives and scholars from countries including Russia, France, Portugal, Belarus, South Korea, Pakistan and India, according to Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which hosted the education dialogue.
The forum, held from Sept. 16 to 18 under the theme “Empowering Traditional Medicine with Modern Technology to Co-build Human Health for All,” brought together government representatives, academics, healthcare experts and industry participants to discuss traditional medicine education, standards, technology, research and international cooperation.
For Jha, the invitation placed Ayurveda within a wider international discussion about how different traditional medical systems can cooperate without losing their individual identities.
Ayurveda enters the education dialogue
The education session focused on two issues that are increasingly important as traditional medicine becomes more international: alignment of education standards and qualification recognition, and the use of digital technology and industry-education cooperation in training practitioners.
Dr. Jha’s participation brought an Ayurveda perspective to discussions otherwise heavily centred on traditional Chinese medicine and other Asian traditional medical systems.
A report published in India before the forum described Jha as the only Indian participant and the only Ayurveda representative invited to the academic dialogue. That description originated in the pre-event report and is therefore best understood as an attributed description of the invitation rather than an independently verified count of every Indian or Ayurveda participant at the wider forum.
Jha’s contribution focused on the idea that international traditional medicine education should encourage mutual understanding rather than uniformity.
Among the proposals he presented were introductory learning about other traditional medical systems within professional education, greater use of digital platforms for international Ayurveda education, development of shared educational resources, comparative research, and mechanisms through which students and professionals from different systems could better understand one another.
His approach was to treat Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine not as competing systems, but as distinct knowledge traditions that could learn from each other through structured education and academic cooperation.
India-China education partnership
A major development during Jha’s visit was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Ayurved Nidhi and Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, establishing a framework for cooperation between the Indian Ayurveda education organisation and the Chinese university.
The partnership provides a platform for possible cooperation in areas including educational programmes, faculty and student interaction, online and offline learning, practical workshops, academic exchange and research.
The university itself has a substantial international cooperation agenda. Jiangxi University says it is part of the SCO Medical University Alliance, a platform established under the SCO framework for cooperation in medical education, research and clinical services.
The MOU therefore connects Aovation — and syurveda education from India with an established Chinese academic institution within a broader regional network of traditional medicine cooperation.
The specific Ayurved Nidhi-Jiangxi University MOU is documented in materials supplied for this report; the university’s published post-forum report confirms the education dialogue, the participation of an Indian representative and the launch of the international education alliance, but does not separately name the Ayurved Nidhi-Jiangxi University MOU.
From dialogue to international alliance
The education dialogue also produced a broader institutional development: the launch of the International Education Alliance for Traditional Medical Techniques.
Jiangxi University said representatives from Russia, India, Belarus and other participating institutions spoke and signed the alliance initiative. The alliance is built around three principles — Diversity, Inheritance and Inneven areas of cooperation, including joint technical training programmes, cross-border education, an international curriculum resource database, academic exchange, education research, scientific research and dissemination of traditional medicine culture.
For Ayurveda, participation in such an initiative creates a formal avenue for the Indian system to be represented alongside other traditional medical traditions in discussions about the future of international education.
Digital education and the next generation of Ayurveda learning
Jha has also been developing international Ayurveda education through Ayurved Nidhi, using online and offline teaching to reach students outside India.
That experience became relevant to the forum’s emphasis on digital transformation.
The host university identified digital empowerment as one of the three major directions for traditional medicine education, alongside education-standard cooperation and integration between education and industry. Its president, Zhu Weifeng, called for traditional medicine education resources to cross geographical boundaries and become more accessible to students internationally.
Jha’s position was that digital education should extend traditional learning rather than replace its practical and teacher-led foundations.
Under such a model, online platforms can provide theoretical knowledge and international access, while universities, teachers and clinical institutions remain responsible for structured education, mentorship and practical competence.
A wider SCO traditional medicine agenda
The education dialogue was one part of a much broader forum.
The 2026 SCO Forum opened in Nanchang on Sept. 17, with senior representatives and experts discussing traditional medicine inheritance and innovation, digital technology, industrial cooperation and cultural exchange.
The forum’s organisers said participants from multiple countries would explore cooperation in education, industry, standards and technology. The event also included exhibitions, cultural activities, research exchanges and visits to traditional medicine institutions.
The forum builds on an SCO traditional medicine process that has developed over several years. The SCO says its Traditional Medicine Forum was established following a 2019 initiative and has developed into a platform for exchanging experience and discussing cooperation in the sector. The 2024 forum concluded with the Nanchang Consensus.
A bridge between two traditions
The significance of Jha’s participation lies not only in his appearance at the forum, but in the combination of representation, academic dialogue, institutional partnership and international education cooperation.
India’s Ayurveda and China’s Traditional Chinese Medicine developed through distinct historical and intellectual traditions. The emerging international education framework discussed in Nanchang seeks to create mechanisms through which such systems can interact while maintaining their diversity.
For Ayurved Nidhi, the Nanchang meeting therefore represented three connected developments: participation in a high-level international traditional medicine education dialogue, entry into a new international education alliance, and an institutional partnership with Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The forum’s broader message was that traditional medicine is increasingly being discussed not only in terms of preserving historical knowledge, but also in terms of education standards, technology, research, international cooperation and the movement of knowledge across borders.
For Ayurveda, the Indian participation provided an opportunity to bring its educational tradition into that conversation — while opening a new channel for cooperation with China’s traditional medicine academic community.
As the SCO traditional medicine platform moves toward greater cooperation in education and technology, the India-China Ayurveda-TCM connection established in Nanchang offers one example of how two different traditional medical systems can engage through a common language of education, research and mutual learning.
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