THAI-YOGA-BODYWORK

The true origins of Nuad Bo-Rarn Thai massage, as it is known in Thailand, are buried in the past.  Tradition tells us that it was given to the world by a physician in India who was a contemporary of the Buddha.  His name, Jivaka Kormarbhhacca also known in Thailand as Shivago Komarpaj, is found with different spellings which have their origins in different linguistic traditions.  He is mentioned in texts in second millennia BC and is thought to be the father of medicine.  These texts, written in the Pali language were considered sacred, and were kept with the sacred Buddhist texts.  Quite obviously, monks were the practitioners of this medicine and the temples or Wat were it’s home.

 

Unfortunately, Thailand was over-run by the Burmese in 1776, and the capital of Ayutthia was destroyed.  The ancient texts dealing with Nuad Bo-Rarn Thai Massage were largely destroyed and lost.  In 1832 King Rama 3 had the best of the surviving texts collected and inscribed in stone.  These stone plagues were set into the walls of Phra Chetaphon Temple, commonly know, as Wat Po, and can be seen today.  Many questions surrounding these inscriptions abound, but the teaching had probably always existed as an oral tradition, and it is as an oral tradition that it is largely taught today.

 

Beyond this, little factual information exists, yet certain insights can be gained.  It appears certain that the origin of Nuad Bo-Rarn Thai Massage has its roots in the ancient medicine of Indian Ayurvedic practice.  The influence of Yoga is also apparent from the positions and stretching movements.  These are thought by some to be largely the same roots from which traditional Chinese medicine may also have emerged. With the advent of Western medicine in Thailand, Nuad Bo-Rarn Thai Massage suffered a decline.  The Wats, or temples, no longer served as the centre of education, healing and social life.  Today, with spiralling costs and complexities of Western treatment, there is a movement to reverse this process, particularly in the rural areas.  Nuad Bo-Rarn Thai Massage is used to not only support and maintain wellness and a full funtioning of life, but to treat and assist in the reversal of degenerative conditions.

Nuad Bo-Rarn/Thai Massage continues to be taught by individual Masters and a few schools that teach in the old tradition. 

 

The principle places to Westerners are at the temple of Wat Po in Bangkok, International Training Massage (ITM), Institute of Thai Massage, and at the Foundation of Shivago Komparpaj, Old Chaing Mai Traditional Hospital, in Chaing Mai Thailand.  While Wat Po teaches ‘southern style’ Thai Massage, which can be more invasive and vigorous, the Foundation of Shivago Komparpaj and Internaional Training Massage, Institute of Thai Massage teaches a gentler ‘northern style’.  The Foundation, International Training Massage, Institute of Thai Massage has also become noted for its outreach to Westerners, and classes are available which are taught in English.

 

Reproduced from ‘Nuad Bo-Rarn’ Ancient Massage Of Thailand with kind permission by Chongkol Setthakorn from International Training Massage (ITM) Chaing Mai.