Thai Massage From An Asian Perspective by
Shama Kern

Thai Massage has established a firm presence in two worlds that look at massage in very different ways. It originated from India’s yoga system and made its way to Thailand about 2500 years ago.

It comes out of a tradition that knew next to nothing about anatomy, science, regulations or ethics.

It did not need to know about them since it was based on a different concept, a holistic perception of the body, mind and spirit, an indivisible unit that needs to be treated as one. Instead of learning anatomy, the therapists studied energy lines. Instead of learning scientific concepts, the practitioners developed their feeling and intuition.

Eastern versus Western Thinking

If you ask any Thai Massage therapist in Thailand about scientific proof, ethics, anatomy or physiology, they will have no idea what you are even talking about. Their way of thinking is quite different. Let me give you a practical example.

I asked an excellent therapist here in Thailand about anatomy. She cannot name a single muscle or bone in the body and told me there was no need to know them since she could feel everything with her hands.

When I mentioned scientific proof, she said that she knew from experience that it worked, and that she had helped many people. She saw no need for further evidence, and neither do her clients.

This woman is sought out by many western therapists and yoga instructors for her body work and has been flown all over the world to work on clients who love her massage. However, she would have no chance to pass a western style licensing exam since she was never trained in the theoretical aspects of massage.

I live in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which has the highest concentration of Thai Massage schools on the planet. Thousands of western students come here from all over the world to study Thai Massage from teachers who would never be considered qualified professional therapists in the west, not because they are not good therapists, but because their approach to massage is totally different.

One of my own most influential Thai Massage teachers falls into that category as well. He is quite famous, highly intuitive, very effective, has shamanic abilities, and many of his thousands of students have been returning to him year after year. He would still fail a western massage exam.

In the West massage has established a framework that supports it in several ways
• Regulations to prevent abuse and to assure the quality of work by practitioners
• Ethics to establish appropriate behavior and interaction
• Training in anatomy and physiology to increase the knowledge of the therapist
• Scientific research to provide evidence for the effectiveness of massage

While this framework is certainly very useful, it is important to understand that not one of the four legs of this framework will make you a better massage therapist when it comes to actually touching people. Or to state it in another way, it is possible to be an excellent therapist without knowing anything about regulations, ethics, anatomy or science.

I can say this from my unique vantage point of living, practicing and teaching Thai massage in Thailand for many years. Thai Massage has been around for 2500 years. It was a primary method to help people with their aches, pains and diseases.

How did those ancient massage therapists work without the western framework?
• Instead of regulations, a strong cultural background set standards
• There is little need for ethics in small communities where the therapist is known by everyone and depends on his or her reputation. A second factor was that Thai Massage was traditionally practiced by monks who had high ethical standards already.
• Thai Massage places more emphasis on energy lines than on anatomy and physiology. Therapists acquired anatomical knowledge through feeling, intuition and practice.
• Instead of requiring scientific proof by third parties, Thai Massage was judged by the results that the clients were getting.

Maintaining a focus on what matters most in massage

What can we learn from this cultural comparison? There is a tendency in the western world to place more and more emphasis on the framework of massage with ever increasing amounts of regulations, ethics, theoretical training and more research. This is all fine and well as long as it does not detract us from the essence of massage which is much harder to teach than science or anatomy.

The essence of massage

From the eastern point of view, massage is much more than a way to manipulate someone’s anatomical parts or generate changes in the physical body that can be measured by science. It is a way of moving energy, of rearranging a subtle anatomy that cannot be measured by science, but that can be perceived by a trained therapist and experienced by the client.

In addition to massage techniques, it requires skills like quality of touch, intuition, sensitivity to energy, empathy, kindness, a genuine desire to help, and a love for your chosen profession that goes beyond the money that can be earned with it.

The framework is meant to support the essence of massage

There is no doubt that the framework of massage has an important place in the western world. But this framework serves little purpose in the eastern world which focuses more on the essence of massage and less on science and clinical data.

• It is possible to be an excellent therapist knowing only the essence of massage without any western style framework
• It is not possible to be an excellent therapist with only a strong framework and lots of theoretical knowledge but lacking the essence of massage

Thai Massage pilgrimage to Thailand

I see it all the time here in Chiang Mai. Well known western Thai Massage teachers with degrees, certifications, and many professional qualifications bring groups of their students to Thailand to experience and study Thai Massage with teachers who have few or none of those credentials but who understand the essence of massage.

Why do western students do this? Because there is something beautiful, something magical in experiencing Thai Massage in its original cultural setting.

There it is – unsanitized, devoid of framework, credentials or clinical data. Theoretical knowledge counts for a lot less than what you can actually do. It is beautifully reduced to its essence, and, at least here in Thailand, that is what matters most.

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Shama Kern is the founder and director of Thai Healing Massage Academy and has published 16 home study video courses including Complete Thai Massage, Thai Rocking Massage, and Heavenly Head Massage. A free introductory 6 part video course is available here .