About The Herbalist

Hello! I am Minnie. I am the herbalist, medicine maker, and founder of Tanah Herbal.

Growing up as a city girl in Hong Kong, I never imagined becoming an herbalist – a profession many people in my city hadn't even heard of. But it's a path that has completely changed my life.

Since I was a little girl, I not only suffered from a lot of skin problems - eczema, severe acne, rosacea, hives and occasionally shingles - but also problems with my moon cycle, including bad menstrual cramps, lower back pain, intense breast pain, and diarrhea. My immune system was so weak that I got sick with flu almost every month. Later, I even started to develop bronchial sensitivity, which can lead to asthma.

Just like everyone else, I went to the doctors. They gave me steroid creams for eczema, Isotretinoin pills for acne, and lots of drugs to fight off the flu. I was told that my problems might never be healed, and I would have to rely on those drugs to control the symptoms for life. And obviously, those drugs never made me feel better or healthier. The side effects backfired on me instead. I spent so much money on and tried countless skincare products and visited beauty salons, but nothing seemed to work.

After my mom got cancer when I was 13 years old, I began to feel even more frustrated and helpless about the healthcare situation. Was it true that we could never heal ourselves? What had gone wrong? Why did all these health problems happen? After that, I stopped listening to the doctors and believing what they told me. I started to look for my own answers, reading books and doing research about biology, science, holistic care, traditional Chinese medicine, diet, nutrition, medical studies, psychology, and anything else related to health. After learning more about the immune system, I stopped going to the doctors for my flu and let my immune system do its job. At the beginning, my mother was very worried about me no longer going to the doctors. She thought that the doctors knew best and I might just die if I believed in myself and my research. Well, I proved her wrong. After having the flu for more than 2 weeks, I slowly got better and guess what, my monthly flu stopped. My immune system started to improve after I stopped drugging myself to suppress it.

We all know that if we could change our lifestyle and manage our stress level, we would have better health. But we also know that being in Hong Kong, it’s very difficult to do. I didn't know how much that was true until I went to New Zealand for 1.5 years in 2015. As a big city girl, it was very hard for me to adopt the countryside lifestyle there. Compared to the glamorous life in Hong Kong, it was like an alien place to me. Before that, I didn’t appreciate nature very much. I thought, “They're just trees and grass, what’s so special about them?” Luckily, New Zealand has the most stunning and breathtaking landscape, and once I saw it, I was in awe. That’s when I started to pay attention to and spend time with nature. I became like a wild kid, running around in the mountains, and I don’t find it boring anymore. One day, I even found myself peacefully enjoying a hot tea in the garden on a beautiful afternoon. I started to realize I had been taking nature for granted and learnt how healing, loving and powerful it really is. I felt such inner peace and ease within me. That's what we truly need - to reconnect with our mother earth and the land we live in.

 
In 2019, I went to Bali for the first time. I've traveled to many other places in the world, but they have never felt like home, and Bali is the one place where I feel I belong. The island's captivating nature stirred something deep within me, and I knew I had found my calling... During my first visit, a vision and a mission began to grow in my mind, and I had a feeling it would become my lifetime commitment. Maybe the universe knew my thoughts, because somehow I got stuck in Bali because of COVID, and now this country is my base. During my first 3 years in Bali, and thanks to COVID, I was able to explore different types of diets and make different experiments with holistic cleansing, detoxes, and healing. In the end, it led me to herbalism, which has been the game changer for me. It’s like the biggest piece of the puzzle. I fell in love with Balinese indigenous wisdom and learnt from the local herbalists. I foraged with them and other like-minded people in the forests and mountains. I also visited the farms to learn about regenerative farming and their harvest culture, and I started to work with plant allies and build a relationship with them. I just fell down the rabbit hole of everything. And the most exciting part is that now I make my own herbal medicines, which have not only helped my friends, neighbours and family, but also slowly and truly healed the problems I had been struggling with my whole life. And now, I would love to share them with you.

 
It has been a very long journey to get to where I am today. But I want to let you know that you are empowered enough to take your healing into your own hands. You can heal yourself. You are the medicine. 

Warmly,
Minnie