Massage in Berlin
The history of Thai massage
The Yoga elements (fish, plow, bridge, pliers etc.) of Thai massage and the terminologies refer to an Indian origin. In their name and their history, the energy lines of Thai massage are similar to the common in India power lines: "Sen Sumana" - "Sushumna Nadi", "Sen Ittha" - "Ida nadi" (Sanskrit) - "Sen Pingkhla" - "Pingala Nadi" and "Asokananda".
Source: Asokananda: ''The art of traditional Thai massage.'' Bangkok, 1993
The authorship of the Thai massage is the north Indian doctor Jivaka-Komarabhacca (alternate spelling: Jivakar Kumar Bhaccha) attributed. Even today he is revered in Thailand as the "father of medicine" and mentioned massage in a prayer service at the beginning of Thailand.
Jivaka-Komarabhacca was contemporary of Buddha and has lived in the 5th century BC. in India. In the Pali Canon, the ancient scriptures of Buddhism the Southern school of Theravada, it is called as a physician to the Indian Magadha king. King Bimbisara was attached to the Buddha and sought him repeatedly. Also Jivaka-Komarabhacca was in touch with Buddha and has looked after him and his monastic community as a physician.
The Thai massage was probably of monks, who moved from India to Myanmar, first passed over many centuries orally in Buddhist temples from generation to generation. This may, according to tradition the earliest from the 3./2. Century BC. be done, because only then the Buddhist teachings began to spread in Southeast Asia.
It circulates the adoption, the Buddhist monks themselves had developed the Thai massage in order to cure them of the consequences of long meditation postures.
The only written remains to Thai massage are written on palm leaves in Pali language and Khmer alphabet and were painted in 1832 by the then Thai King Nang Klao '' Rama III '' in the temple Wat Pho in Bangkok engraved in 60 stone tablets. (Epigravuren are there still be seen today). All other products were already lost 1767, in the destruction of ancient Thai royal city of Ayutthaya by Burmese (Myanmar).
As the Buddhist monks left the "Tibetan – Indian sphere" the knowledge about this massage art has left too. So it is practiced in India today only sporadically. The published techniques are known as Indian yoga massage or Ayurvedic massage. This points to a cultural change the origin region.
It is conceivable that in Siam already existed forms of massage that mingled with the "new doctrine" and it can not be ruled out, that over the centuries, because of the relations of trade, traditional Chinese medicine affected the method. The relationship of acupuncture and acupressure is undeniable.
The traditional Thai massage is still today strongly linked in the practice of Buddhism. It is applied with Metta (southern Buddhism common term for loving kindness). The Masters are usually deeply religious people, who apply massages in a state of mindfulness, equanimity, compassion and compassionate joy.
What is again typical of Buddhism: "Are other people well, so I enjoy patronizing to his happiness."
Source: Verbal statements by monks from Thailand and Wikipedia.
