The Thai massage - what is it?

Real Thai Massage begins from recitation of mantra addressed to doctor Shivago – the therapist asks for power in her hands and health for a patient. According to the legend that was him, an Indian healer, doctor Shivago who laid the basis for Thai massage over two thousand years ago. During long meditations and praying the secret knowledge that helped to create a unique principles of body curing was discovered by him. For centuries it was given from generation to generation only in temples and in families of healers, wandering Southeast Asia with ancient Thai nation until they settled the territory of present Thailand.

There, in one of the temples for the first time ever the massage technics and its curing effect were described on palm leaves. But in the 17th century when Burma invaded Ayutthaya, ancient capital of Siam, the temple where the writings were kept was ruined, and the writings were lost. In the 19th century the king of Thailand Rama III decided to turn back the ancient knowledge. He got together all the therapists mastering the ancient massage technics in order that they could organize all their skills and remained writings, and transfer them on the stone boards. While building the temple Wat Po in Bangkok its walls were decorated with those boards as learning material for numerous generations of monks. That’s how the modern school of Thai massage appeared and spread over whole Thailand. And today you can see those stone boards showing the energy lines on human body and sculptures describing different asanas in Wat Po temple.

About our body

The studies of Thai massage is connected with meridians or special channels that carry life energy from the top to the feet. The Thais call them “sen”, there are more than 72 thousand of them, and during two hour massage 10 basic sens are worked out. Stresses and negative emotions block these meridians, the energy stops flowing evenly and, as our masters say, the emptiness appears. First such blocks are felt as tiredness and weakness or vice versa as overexcitement, later one can feel heaviness and muscle tension, blood circulation suffers and pain appears. Sometimes the consequences of strong stress come in full force after many years pass when it seems to be over… The main goal of traditional Thai massage is to remove these blocks.

Thai masters do it with help of system of body positions which are called asana in yoga. In fact hatha yoga and thai massage are close “relatives”, that’s why thai massage is often called yoga-massage. This system includes twisting and stretching, all the movements are performed by masters slowly but rhythmic, to music, every muscle, joint, chorda is worked out thoroughly. Along with this the action is directed on lymphatic and circulatory system.

It’s very important that for therapists our body is a consistent entire system therefor while doing back massage they anyway briefly come through the whole body.  And when we said that in Russia massagist can massage only one body area, our thai masters couldn’t believe in it, saying that it was impossible, because harmful and the therapist could get to prison for such massage.

If you want to have full and competent view on Thai massage here is a video for you

Who needs it

We usually recommend thai massage for those who suffer from drawing pain and tiredness in muscles as a result of great physical load, and at the same time for those who doesn’t have any physical exercise and feels tired and sleepy. Be sure, every professional therapist knows the necessary measure of influence individually for every client, and our masters know better what a sportsman will bear up is not good for a  80-year-old woman.

At massage you will get light physical exercise necessary especially for you, feel a surge of energy and you will be able to resist negative emotions. However, as our contemporary thai massage teacher Pishet Buntami  says: ”even positive emotions shouldn’t stick in the body”  -  they should “feed” you 
to a certain extent too.

Having reach experience of dealing with thai massage I know it has been said that such massage should be painful. Indeed pain can appear in overchilled or blocked muscles that need very good work out. Sometimes after massage, especially if it happens seldom, one can feel muscle pain like after a heavy gym training. In this case having 15 minute hot water bath with 1 kilo of salt will help. And we recommend to have a course of massage, and to our client’s great surprise at the third or forth session he/she falls asleep with pleasure.  Some people ask why the master did massage much softer? No, she didn’t, healthy body is not painful.

As a rule our therapists recommend to have massage once a week for two hour session to work out the body thoroughly, one hour massage is also possible, but in this case it’s better to have it twice a week.

 

You are welcome in Thai massage salon “SPA Mantra”!

Our masters are highly skilled and very experienced. They know all the secrets of thai massage and do their job with great love. We are always glad to see you in our SPA. Here you can really have rest and fill you body with life power.

Thai massage in Moscow at Bratislavskaya metro station performed by “SPA Mantra” – is a good way to take your mind off of troublous big city life and pay more attention to you health. You will discover a wonderful world of Thailand traditions and will find a new conception of harmony, peace and joy!

 

Contraindication to thai massage:

There are usual contraindications to thai massage which are common for other massage therapies as well, they are :

Serious cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, cancers, osteoporosis, having artificial limb (e.g. in hip or knee joint)

Skin diseases: eczema, psoriasis, shingles

Pregnancy

Be careful if you have venous varices (you shouldn’t have massage very often)

Anyway, if you hesitate you should first consult your doctor to find out if there are any individual contraindications concerning your health before having thai massage.

 

Before thai massage starts we usually ask a client some questions to find out:

If he/she has any sensitive body areas or organs

If he/she has any acute disease

If he/she has been operated on

If he/she has any heart disease, heterotonia, venous varices, gastro-intestinal infection

But I would like to add the saying of one of our clients, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine: “ the main  contraindication to massage is bad master!”, and our experience bears out there wise words.

 

Stay healthy!


Тайский массаж - что это?