Chines medicine


Jivaka, the inventor of Thai massage

Jivaka
 

 

Jivaka Kumar Bhacca (5th century BC), who lived in northern India more than 2,500 years ago, is known as the Buddha's counselor and personal physician, as well as the doctor of the then ruling King of Madagha, Bimbisara. He is considered the founder of the Thai yoga massage "Nuad". In ways that are not well known, Jivakas knowledge in 3./4. Century AD to Thailand, where it was initially passed on exclusively in the temples of Buddhist scholars.



The biography of Jivaka is reminiscent of that of Moses: Prince Abaya, son of King Bimisara, watched a swarm of crows circling a filthy bundle in a ditch. He got off his horse and found a child close to death. Investigations revealed that a courtesan had "disposed of" her newborn at the roadside. The prince took the child home and adopted it - the future doctor ...



The roots of Thai yoga bodywork (thail .: Nuad, translates as "healing touch") are therefore in Indian Yoga and Ayurveda (Ayurveda = knowledge of life). From here, the teachings of Ayurvedic doctors were brought to the area of ​​today's northern Thailand. While Nuad is no longer practiced in India today, it has become an integral part of Thai culture. In the western world, the Thai massage was first heard in the late 17th century. The French ambassador to the court of Siam, Simon de la Loubère (1642-1729), reported in 1691:


"Quand quelqu'un est malade à Siam, il commence par se faire ramollir tout le corps par quelqu'un qui soit entendu en cela, qui monte sur le corps du malade, & foule aux piés. L'on dit mêmes que les femmes great font ainsi fouler aux piés par un enfant, afin d'accoucher avec moins de peine "(Du Royaume de Siam, vol. 1, A Paris, Chez la Veuve de Jean-Baptiste Coignard and Jean-Baptiste Coignard, MDCXCI, 1691, p. 242). Translated to English, "When someone in Siam is sick, he starts having his whole body worked on by someone who is trained in it." He climbs onto the patient's body and punctures it with his feet after, they let a child trample on to ease their birth. "



In contrast to Western massage, the Thai masseur is not interested in anatomical conditions, but rather in the flow of energy circulating in the 10 Sen lines (Chinese influences?). The massage is characterized by targeted pressure with thumbs, hands, arms, elbows, feet and knees on the acupressure points, the energy lines of the body intense, with z.T. brute force, are processed. A special feature of the Thai yoga massage are also the targeted stretching, which give this massage a special liveliness and vitality. The massager remains clothed.



We present a 9.5 cm high statuette of the doctor Jivaka Kumar Bhacca from a bronze-colored foam modeled after the life-size statue in the temple "Wat Sala Loi" in the northeast of the city Nakhon Ratchasima (?) - a souvenir of my son Thomas from a holiday trip to Thailand, as he risked a day trip to neighboring Burma ...