Thai Massage - Online Consultations

 

In the last five years, significant changes have occurred in the world of Thai massage. The Covid epidemic has closed many Thai massage schools; some teachers have retired, some have changed professions, and some are no longer with us. If you feel unsure about the direction in which to further develop and advance your practice, consider signing up for a consultation to discuss it. You may gain some new, fresh ideas. Welcome!

For more info please write to tttbelgrade@gmail.com

Thai Massage and "Thai Massage"

 When we say "Thai massage" today, most people imagine the above image. However, Thai massage isn't represented by this image but rather by the one below. What's the difference? The difference lies in the fact that the scene in the first image is simply put – a commercial brand. Thai massage, on the other hand, is depicted in the second image and represents an ancient folk healing art.

Ajahn Nafon Tosawat (อาจารย์น้ำฝน โตสวัสดิ์), Wiset Chai Chan District, Ang Thong Province, Thailand 

Thai massage has existed for centuries and would typically be practiced by a local healer, often a member of the village. They would essentially grow into healers within their local environment, learning the skill over many years, usually from a family member, knowing personally most of their patients and their medical history, familiar with local customs and beliefs, as well as surrounding nature - the local climate, food, flora and fauna. They were, we might say, inseparable from their immediate surroundings, which is a characteristic of all traditional medicines worldwide. They would care for the health of the community, and in return, the community would provide for all their basic needs.

What we see in the first image, advertised as "Thai massage," is a serious, now already global, capitalist business. This "Thai massage" has emerged through the mutilation, simplification, and standardization of authentic Thai massage, all aimed at creating a brand that enables enormous profit.

Firstly, the owner investing capital and opening a Thai massage salon is often some businessman who has no personal connection to massage but see it as an attractive business opportunity. To capitalize on the allure of authenticity, labor is imported from Thailand. Thai natives practicing this "Thai massage" don't spend years learning it in Thailand; instead, they undergo quick standardized courses of a few hundred hours, learning fixed sequences of manual techniques.  Therefore, they approach each client with the predictable pattern.  As they lack knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and diagnostics of Thai medicine, they apply Thai massage techniques solely for relaxation and not as a physical therapy - what Thai massage really is.

Secondly, practitioners not only leave their local communities, often heading to big cities or remote tourist centers. In the last two decades, they have massively migrated to other continents as well, facing unfamiliar languages, customs, cultures, food and climates. In these conditions, thousands of kilometers away from their families, their culture and their homeland, they work 12-hour shifts, like on an assembly line, for usually meager wages .

From personal experience, I know that  in the last twenty years, Europe could witness litteral mushrooming of these salons offering "Thai massage". In my city alone, there are at least ten of them now. Recently, I was even in a very small, remote Swiss village, and you guessed it—there's a Thai massage salon there too.

Medicine - Yaa (ยา).

 The most frequently used therapy in Traditional medicine of Thailand is medicine made of herbal, animal or mineral origin, called „yaa“ (ยา). The common word „yaa“ in Thai language refers to any medicine which is applied to a patient externally or internally. Pharmacological treatment is usually used in combination with other therapeutic approaches. Treatment of any disease commonly begins with drug therapy, either external medication, internal medication or both. The formulation and application of medicine vary depending on the severity and the extent of the disease, age of the patient, preference and knowledge of the doctor, availability of the medicinal substances and financial resources of the patient.

The medications are divided into external medicines and internal medicines with regard to their methods of application. The most common external medicines are liniments, embrocations, ointments, poultices, fomentation and herbal compresses. The most frequently used internal medicines are oral remedies, nasal inhalants, ophthalmic remedies and ear drops.

The „yaa“ is also divided into household remedies and more complex medications which have to be administered by a trained doctor. The household remedies are used to alleviate the initial symptoms, for example after the insect bites, they usually have only one ingredient or a very simple formula and can be applied by a layperson. The highly refined medicines for serious treatment of diseases are complex concoctions that must be prescribed with the correct ingredients and prepared following a correct procedure. The doctor has to be trained to accurately diagnose a patient’s disease and to be knowledgeable of the ingredients and formulas of various medicines. These complex medicines are regarded as strong ones, each with particular properties to treat particular diseases – they can be harmful if prescribed incorrectly based on a wrong diagnosis. Even for a very experienced doctor it is a challenge to prescribe the right medicine for the right patient, in the right amount and at the right time.