What Is a Traditional Thai Massage?

Traditional Thai massage (also known as Nuad Bo'Rarn or naud phaen boran) is one of the oldest forms of manual medicine, dating back around 2,500 years in Thailand. Thai massage is generally believed to have originated from a combination of Indian Ayurveda and traditional Chinese healing arts.

Techniques

• Typically, a Thai massage therapist uses his or her hands, knees, legs and feet to move you through a series of yoga-like stretches. The therapist may also incorporate muscle compression, joint mobilization and acupressure.

Energy

• Thai massage is based on the concept of clearing blockages in the energy lines called sen (similar to the Chinese concept of meridians). Thai massage is a spiritually based practice, and the four primary desired outcomes of the massage are love, compassion, joy and equinimity (being calm and even-tempered), according to the International Thai Therapists Association.

Setting

• For a Thai massage, you wear clothing in which you can easily move. The massage is done on a padded mat on the floor. The massage therapist uses no oil, and sessions can last from one to three hours. In Thailand, you typically receive the massage in a group setting, but in the West, massage therapists most likely use private offices.

Styles

• The two main styles of Thai massage are the Northern Style, taught at the Massage Hospital of the Foundation of Shivago Komarpaj in Chang Mai, and Southern Style, taught at Wat Pho in Bangkok.

Considerations

• As with many Eastern practices that come to the West, Thai massage often loses some of its cultural context and becomes only a physical massage practice for some massage therapists.