Since the boom in Thai tourism in the 1980’s Thai massage has come to the fore and its reputation has grown internationally. It is now popular around the world and is one of the main massage techniques practiced globally.
Traditional Thai massage is one of the 5 branches of traditional Thai medicine. It has a lot in common with Indian and Chinese massage techniques, all three utilize the concept of energy lines in the body – Sen lines – and opening them up to energy flows. This differs from other massage techniques which focus more on the musculature of the body.
The history of traditional Thai massage goes back several centuries. Its inception along with Thai medicine is credited to the legendary physician Shivago Komarpaj who lived more than 2500 years ago.
Unfortunately, the continuous written record of the history of Thai massage was broken in 1767, when the writings where lost during the Burmese attack on the royal capital in Ayutthaya.
Those records that did survive have been transcribed to stone tablets, and are now safely kept at Sala Moh Nuat (the massage pavilion) of the temple of the reclining Buddha (Wat Po) in Bangkok.
History of Thai Massage
