Nuad Bo'Rarn : The Traditional Healing Massage of Thailand

Centuries ago, in rural villages of China and Japan, often the martial artist was one of the most learned individuals in the society. The traditional martial artist had two jobs. One job was to protect the weak and powerless, and serve the cause of justice. The other job was to heal people in the community, using knowledge of traditional Oriental medicine.

These two roles-harming and healing-might seem contradictory, but they are not. In the Thai way of life, it was very normal for the martial artist to perform the dual functions as a guardian angel of the weaker section of the society even as he practised the healing skills, on the other hand.

Just as in medieval Europe, a master craftsman would announce his trade by means of a pictorial sign, for example, the blacksmith's hammer and anvil, or the apothecary's mortar and pestle. In the Far East the symbol of a martial artist's trade was the Chinese dragon or lion. Empty claws meant the practitioner only did martial arts.

If the practitioner also possessed knowledge of the healing arts, the dragon's claws would be shown grasping an orb which, in Oriental mythology, denoted the pearl of wisdom. In modern terms, a martial arts teacher often develops a heightened sense of body awareness-as well as specific knowledge of anatomy and physiology-that leads to the ability to heal.

Traditionally, being able to cure, as well as to injure, is part of Budo (the 'martial way'). In their 'most advanced form, many traditional martial arts are based upon striking certain vital points. These vital points are generally located along the energy meridians of the body-the very same energy meridians that are central to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, and other Oriental healing arts. The knowledge of the locations and functions of these vital points can equally be the foundation for healing arts.

Thai medicine represents a coherent traditional medicine that has developed and been refined over the past 25 centuries. Thai medicine has been strongly influenced by both the Ayurvedic tradition of India and the traditional medicine of China. Within this synthesis, there are important components that are purely Thai. Many of the primary techniques to treat the wide range of disorders that afflict people are contained within the practice of Nuad Bo'Rarn, the physical medicine of Thailand.

Although Nuad Bo'Rarn is often considered to be a form of massage, it contains elements and techniques that are quite different from the common notions of massage and would more correctly be categorized as a form of peripheral stimulation. Contained within these techniques are the direct and clear intentions of the practitioner to affect the physiology and energy fields of the body and mind of the recipient.

History of Nuad Bo Rarn

According to traditional lore, Ancient Thai Massage was introduced to Southeast Asia some 2,500 years ago by a doctor from northern India named Jivaka Kumar Bhacca. Bhacca, a contemporary of the Buddha, was the personal physician for the Magadha King, Bimbisara. The Pali Canon, the ancient texts of Theravada Buddhism, calls Bhacca a friend of the Buddha and a doctor for the first Buddhist monks.

A Western traveller observed the healing art of Thai massage as early as the 17th century. Simon de la Loubere, a French envoy to the Royal Court of Siam, wrote in his diaries in 1690- "When someone's ill in Siam, he has his body worked on by a person skilled in this art, who tramples all over him."

Thai massage is again mentioned in 17th-century medical texts written in the Pali language and Khmer script on palm leaves. These texts were objects of great respect by medical practitioner of the era. All but fragments of these texts were lost in the 1767 destruction of the ancient royall town of Ayutthaya by Burmese conquerors.

The surviving fragments in 1832 served as the basis for King Rama Ill's famous epigraphs at the Phra Chetuphon Temple (Wat Pho) in Bangkok. One of the famous centres teaching Thai massage today is the Wat Pho Traditional Medical School at Wat Pho temple.