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Manage No, Sortation, Country, Writer ,Date, Copyright Manage No EE00000026 Country Thailand ICH Domain Social practices, rituals, festive events Knowledge and practices about nature and the universe Address Nuad Thai has traditionally been a common self-care practice within families and communities across all regions in Thailand. There are a total of 25,205 practicing folk massage healers nationwide Professional Nuad Thai practices are now incorporated into all three levels of the national healthcare system, namely, primary, secondary and tertiary. Over four million hospital visits are made annually to receive Nuad Thai treatment under the Universal Health Coverage Scheme. Practitioners of Nuad Thai for therapeutic and rehabilitative purposes are available in most public health facilities. Nuad Thai for health promotion is also offered at private Nuad Thai and spa establishments throughout the country. In recent years, Nuad Thai has become one of the most popular massage therapies among non-Thais as well, spreading to major cities around the world.
| Description | Nuad Thai is regarded as part of the art, science and culture of Thai traditional healthcare. As a non-medicinal remedy and a manual therapy, it involves body manipulation in which the practitioner helps rebalance the patients’ body, energy and structure in order to treat illnesses believed to be caused by the obstruction of energy flow along sen, or lines. This manipulation aims to normalize dhatu or the four body elements, namely, earth, water, wind and fire. Though being described as energy lines, sen is a concept distinct from the meridians of traditional Chinese medicine and nadi of yoga. Traditional Thai massage theory holds that there is a web of sen lines running and crisscrossing throughout the human body, totaling 72,000, ten of which are primary and known as ten primary lines. Diagnosis and treatment in Nuad Thai are based on the principle of sen prathan sib. To open up blocked routes, Nuad Thai therapists perform a combination of pressing, kneading, squeezing, pounding, chopping, bending, stretching, etc. using their hands, elbows, knees, feet, together with self-massaging tools, and herbal hot compress to reduce inflammation and relax affected muscles. Practitioners also treat patients with compassion, giving encouragement to lift physical constitution and morale. Presently, Nuad Thai is classified into two main types: Nuad Thai therapy and Nuad Thai for health promotion. |
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| Social and cultural significance | Practicing Nuad Thai in the family and community is an expression of love and care for others. It strengthens social solidarity, enhances self-reliance, and exemplifies loving-kindness, a quality that has inspired and defined Thailand as caring society. The continuation of the tradition helps uphold the community’s identity, firmly anchored in its history and local wisdom. Massage healers in rural communities are mostly farmers who inherit the art from generation to generation, and practice it to help relieve others’ suffering rather than to make a living. It is customary not to demand compensation or rewards beyond kha khru, a negligible amount of value in the form of honorarium given as a token of respect for the teachers of Nuad Thai. Even so, their patients always willingly provide them with additional money, gifts or free labor out of gratitude, not on the basis of trade. Both the healer and the patient share the same belief that any positive outcomes of the healing will be attributed to the teachers who are the source of knowledge and moral standing. |
| Transmission method | Institutionalized education systems for professional Nuad Thai practitioners began to take shape following the issuance of a ministerial announcement in 2001 recognizing Nuad Thai as a branch of Traditional Thai Medicine (TTM). Subsequently, the 800-hour Professional Nuad Thai Training Program and the 330-hour Training Program for Assistant to TTM Practitioner have been established as benchmarks for training for would-be professional practitioners. Accreditation is required for institutions, clinics and hospitals offering such programs. Qualifications are specified for training instructors. Presently, those who successfully complete the former are eligible for the licensing examination to obtain a License certificate of practice for a TTM practitioner in Nuad Thai. Graduates of the latter are qualified to practice in hospitals, within assigned areas of responsibilities under the supervision of officials concerned. Over the past decade, training in the occupational track, or Nuad Thai for health promotion, has grown dramatically as government and private organizations have been offering a plethora of training courses to produce Nuad Thai practitioners. Department of Health Service Support, enforcing Health Promotion Establishments Act 2016 (B.E.2559), has established an accreditation system for training institutions and benchmarks for training curriculums to ensure the quality of Nuad Thai practitioners. However, traditional transmission of Nuad Thai knowledge and skills from local Nuad Thai masters in rural communities faced problems, as the practice does not really appeal to the young generation. There are concerns that the tradition could die out in some rural communities where no successors could be recruited. |
| Community | The knowledge and practice of traditional Thai massage is carried out by independent massage therapists, or mo nuad, who have had training, and operate in hospitals, private clinics, health establishments, and popular massage places in every part of the country. Massage therapists are both men and women. Some earn their living from their service, some part-time. Some traditional massage therapists belong to folk healing traditions, others learn in institutional training. There are over fifty non-governmental organizations which support and advocate traditional massage, for example, Federation of Traditional Thai Medicine of Thailand, Health and Development Foundation, Chiang Rai Lanna Folk Healers Council, Thai Holistic Health Foundation, and others. At a professional level, the Thai Traditional Medical Council oversees and regulates over seventy institutions for training massage therapists. |
| Type of UNESCO List | Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List | 2019 |
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Nuad Thai: Traditional Thai Massage as ICH
Nuad thai or Thai Massage is a body and mind therapy, a traditional method of healing integrating the knowledge of science and art and local wisdom. Transmitted from generation to generations since the ancient times, it is still remarkably widespread throughout the country because of its effectiveness. In the past, it was practiced only within family bounds, such that wives or children would massage their husbands, parents, or grandparents after farming or gardening to relieve muscle ache. Basically, nuad skills involve applying hands, elbows, knees, and feet to press, squeeze, chop, stretch, knead, and pound. Thai people believe that the human body consists of four basic elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Nuad can stimulate energies of the body, and thus it betters blood circulation. In 2011, the Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture inscribed nuad thai on the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage under the domain of Knowledge and Practices Concerning Nature and the Universe. Nuad has two important purposes. One is to secure the capacity of one’s health to carry out the demands of professional life. In fact, people can select a kind of massage according to their individual preference such as reflexology, oil massage, hot herbal ball massage, hydrotherapy massage, or foot massage. For this purpose, plenty of spas or massage houses provide this kind of comforting service. On another hand, nuad thai is a remedy to health problems. In this case, therapists are required to be specialized and certified for this treatment to diagnose, cure, heal, or relieve the symptom. Felling off the pillow, low back pain, ankle sprain, constipation, and paralysis are some example of this treatment. Nowadays, nuad thai is more extensively famous, not only for farmers or workers but also for other areas of work. As modernization, social pressure of technology, and increase of office work, burnt-out people tend to have nuad to reduce their body pain and relax their minds. Nuad has gained a wider acceptance as self-care practice for social value as the body and mind treatment. In fact, it recently becomes more popular for foreign tourists, too. Photo : Nuad Thai 1ⓒ The Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture in Thailand
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DI00000438
NUAD THAI ANCIENT HEALTH CARE ACT OF THAILAND
Thai massage, or Nuad Thai, is an ancient art and science of healthcare and therapy that is a branch of Thai traditional medicine. The worldview and theoretical knowledge of Thai massage are closely associated with Buddhism.
Usa Klinhom President, Folk Healer Network Society 2020