Photos: Battling drug addiction in Indonesia with hot herbal baths and prayers

With the intensification of the drug war in Indonesia following the President Joko Widodo’s stand on how drugs pose a bigger danger than Islamist militancy, the criminalization of drug addicts has made the road to rehabilitation a much tougher challenge. Ustad Ahmad Ischsan Maulana, the head of Nurul Ichsan Al Islami traditional rehabilitation centre in Purbalingga, Indonesia uses traditional rehabilitation center in Purbalingga village and has treated hundreds of addicts with herbal teas and baths.

Updated on: Oct 27, 2017 2:08 PM IST

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Recovering drug addicts sit in a boiling herbal bath. The traditional rehabilitation center in Purbalingga village has treated hundreds of addicts with herbal teas, baths, prayer and counselling. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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Recovering drug addicts pray at the Nurul Ichsan Al Islami traditional rehabilitation centre in Indonesia. Also known as ‘Kiai Suro Godog’, the Purbalingga center is one of the 160 across Indonesia that uses traditional methods and houses about 30 patients. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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Ustad Ahmad Ischsan Maulana, the head of Nurul Ichsan Al Islami traditional rehabilitation centre, poses in a hot water herbal in Purbalingga, Indonesia. He started the traditional rehabilitation centre 17 years using traditional methods such as immersing his patients in boiling hot water for 10 to 30 minutes, herbal teas, prayer and counselling. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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A recovering addict, Tanto (18), has been a drug addict for three years and seen in his room at the Nurul Ichsan Al Islami traditional rehabilitation centre in Purbalingga, Indonesia. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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Bayu, a recovering drug addict sits in a hot water herbal bath as part of the treatment by the head of rehabilitation centre, Ustad Ahmad Ischsan Maulana in Purbalingga, Indonesia. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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Drug addicts wait for a traditional herbal hot water immersion treatment at a rehabilitation centre in Indonesia. The government estimates that there are six million drug users in a country of 250 million people. In a 2013 report released by UN, more than 1 million are addicted to meth but less that one percent of dependent users got treatment in 2014 compared with a global average of 16 per cent. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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Recovering drug addicts learn Islamic music known as ‘rebana’ at the Nurul Ichsan Al Islami traditional rehabilitation centre in Purbalingga. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

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Graffiti by recovering drug addicts is seen on the wall of a rehabilitation centre on in Indonesia. Indonesian president Joko Widodo told police officers in July this year to shoot drug traffickers who resisted arrest following the path of Philippines president that saw thousands of alleged drug dealers and drug users killed. Maulana is however determined to combat the drug issue in an alternative way, by replacing the hard drugs among the addicts with herbs. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)