Thai Massage

Benjamin and I finished our Thai massage course yesterday. The beauty of taking the course is that not only did we learn this ancient tradition, but we were massaged every day. Granted, our massages were given by our fellow students during practice hours, but 2 consecutive weeks of massage does something for the old bod. 60 hours and a lot of sore muscles later, we are now as flexible as pretzels and can give a traditional Thai massage -- in fact, the first 3 people in the Bay Area who write a poem about why they need a Thai massage will get one when we return home (write your poem in the comments section that follows this text). But be warned: Thai massage is not the gentle kneading of muscles we're used to in the West... read on...

"When any person is sick in Siam he begins with causing his whole body to be moulded by one who is skillful herein, who gets upon the body of the sick person and tramples him under his feet." ~Simon de la Loubere, French liaison to the Thai Royal Court, 1690

The roots of Thai massage actually lie in India -- the founder of the art, a doctor known as Jivaka Kumar Bhaccha, was a contemporary of the Buddha and personal physician to the Magadha King Bimbisara over 2,500 years ago. Although he is believed to be the father of Thai massage, the origins of the practice remain obscure: in the old days, knowledge was passed by oral tradition and that which was written down, on palm leaves in the Pali language, was destroyed when the Burmese invaded and plundered Thailand's ancient capital city, Ayutthia. What remained of the medical scriptures was collected and pieced together and carved in stones placed in the walls of Bangkok's famous Wat Pho. These carvings remain the only original depictions of the ancient theories behind Thai massage.

Thai massage is based on the belief that invisible energy lines and acupressure points influence the body and its functioning. There are thousands of 'sen', or energy lines, but Thai massage focuses primarily on 10. The background of this belief is Indian in origin, based on the yoga philosophy that life energy, or prana, is absorbed in the air we breath and food we ingest. The Prana Nadis, or network of energy lines, supplies humans with vital energy. Thai massage removes blockages from these lines and thus improves health. This may all sound like hogwash to the Western mind, but scientists have recognized, although with confusion, that the lines and acupressure points do have some validity. Get a Thai massage and you will feel energized and light... Benjamin always says he 'cannot feel his body'... you feel light and free from stress, heavy limbs, fatigue.

I'm not one who goes in for the heady and mystical rantings of those heavily into 'spirituality', and I'm not referring to religion when I use the term. I'm referring to people who say things like, "Experience and actualize your untapped potential, your horizons of awareness expanded to all levels of consciousness..." or use phrases like, 'harmonize your energy flow', 'find your purity balance', 'discover your True Being that exists beyond 3-dimensional reality'. No, I'm not into that stuff -- even if these things do exist, I'd be much more receptive if people just used common language. The color purple and images of crystals and light beams and women wearing colorful moo moos who dream of communion with dolphins is a big turn-off for me. Men who wear loose tunics and reek of patchouli and smile that too-sweet and silly smile of the 'ultra-blissed-out' and get off on holding hands and just 'relating' to others send me running for the hills. Fortunately, Thai massage is none of these things and while working with energy lines does stand on a narrow fence of the 'grounded' and the 'spiritual hippies', the practice is more about healing the body through stretching muscles and breaking blockades that lead to sickness and pain.

Thai massage is, by nature, hard and 'tough' -- the practitioner uses her feet, hands, elbows, thumbs, and body weight to work the muscles and energy lines of the receiver. Many people call Thai massage 'yoga massage' because of all the stretching involved -- many of the positions and exercises are similar to yoga positions. It's very physical work, takes place on the floor, and as a practitioners, Benjamin and I were constantly on our knees or squatting, flowing from one position to the next while balancing on our toes... Our teacher described the technique as a dance, moving from one position into the next with grace so that the receiver (or patient or victim) is barely aware of your presence. It was a lot of fun, and requires serious concentration (in fact, practitioners are supposed to be in a meditative mood while giving a massage). In total, we learned over 100 techniques to work the entire body... a typical Thai massage takes 2 hours.

In Thailand, you can pay 200 Baht (or around 5 bucks) for a 2-hour massage. In the States, we've looked it up, a similar massage will run $120.00. We can't legally practice Thai massage back home, not without training from Western massage schools and licensing by the city/state. We won't be making the big bucks by practicing massage at home -- but no matter, the two of us will have our own private masseur and anyway, according to the 'rules of a good Thai masseur', we are not to hope for 'any gains... material profit nor glory or fame.'