The practice of traditional Thai massage—actually just one aspect of the ancient Thai science of healing—is poised to become a key component of Thailand’s health care industry, with a particular focus on the elderly. The move into the modern medical system, part of a new government initiative, is being led by the WatPo Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School, which is headquartered in Bangkok at the historic Buddhist temple complex of Wat Po, known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage.

“Many problems we face cannot be cured by Western medicine, especially in elderly healthcare,” said the school’s manager Serat Tangtrongchitr. “We need to balance the body and the mind in order [for the elderly] to lead a normal life as [far as] possible. [The] Thai Ministry of Public Health feels this is [an] important and cheap way to help people around [the] country.” (IDN-InDepthNews)

The school is working with Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health to provide traditional Thai massage at hospitals and clinics across the kingdom. The Thai government is expanding smaller health care centers in provincial areas away from larger urban centers and aims to ensure that Thai massage forms a major component of treatments available to the public. Serat hopes that by the end of this year, the school will be working with Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University to incorporate Thai massage therapy into elderly health care through a jointly run specialized clinic within the university’s campus.

Thai massage, sometimes known in Thai as “yoga massage” as the practice can be considered a form of assisted yoga, is part of an ancient healing system that combines acupressure and energy-balancing techniques based on Indian Ayurvedic medicine and yoga postures. An Indian-born Ayurvedic doctor named Jivaka Kumar Bhacca, who lived during the time of the Buddha and is believed to have treated him, is widely considered to be the founding father of traditional Thai medicine and massage.

“When it came [to Thailand], it had a mixture of Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, and local herb and local knowledge that developed into Thai traditional medicine,” Serat said. (IDN-InDepthNews)

The existing school at Wat Po was started as a private institution by Serat’s grandfather Kamtorn Tangtrongchit in 1955, although its antecedent was first established in 1832 as Thailand’s first university. It addition to massage, the school also teaches traditional Thai medicine, pharmaceutical science, and midwifery. The school, which also operates training centers outside of Bangkok, offers basic one-week and one-month courses for novices, after which those who are interested in pursuing the practice at a higher level can follow more advanced programs.

“In [the initial] training we start with orientation, talking about pressure points, anatomy of [the] body, which part of the body you are supposed to touch, which not,” said massage teacher Sompit Pitasingha, who has been a teacher for 25 years. “We start softly with the body and then go to toes and legs.” (IDN-InDepthNews)

Serat noted that most of the school’s trainees were already working in the country’s burgeoning spa industry and many of them hoped to advance their careers into more therapeutic fields, adding, “We also have western doctors who come here to learn Thai massage to see if they can incorporate it in their practice.” (IDN-InDepthNews)

Among the green rolling hills in the Larung Gar Valley in China, the last thing you would expect to see in the countryside are thousands of red wooden huts that have been built in a massive cluster.

Despite its secluded location it is home to the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, the world’s largest Buddhist settlement.
The authorities in China’s southwestern Sichuan Province are reportedly planning a major reduction of the burgeoning monastic population at the famed Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in the Larung Valley near the town of Sertar, Garze Prefecture. The reported decision follows similar moves in 2001, when state authorities organized a mass eviction of residents from the institute, and late last year, when further evictions were accompanied by an order to reduce admissions to curb the rapid growth of the monastic population.

Situated in the traditional Tibetan region of Kham, Larung Gar Buddhist Academy was founded in 1980 by the highly respected teacher Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok (1933–2004), a lama of the Nyingma tradition, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. With some estimates putting the population at as many as 40,000 monks and nuns, the institute is widely considered to be the largest center of Buddhist learning in the world.

“Last year, 600 members of this center were ordered to leave, and they returned to their hometowns. About 400 members aged 60 and older were also asked to leave, and they left as well,” an anonymous source told Radio Free Asia, a private, non-profit international broadcaster created by the US government. “This year, the authorities are talking about 1,200 members who will have to leave, and it is said that China has now issued a document saying that only 5,000 monks and nuns will be allowed to remain [at Larung Gar].”

Government officials were marking houses that obstructed the passage of firefighting vehicles or the construction of roads, according to the source, who added that dwellings targeted for demolition would be torn down by force if necessary. “About 60 to 70 per cent of the houses of monks and nuns are being marked for demolition,” the source said, noting that the order to reduce the number of residents at Larung Gar did not originate at the county level, “but comes from higher authorities,” with China’s president Xi Jinping taking a personal interest in the matter. (Radio Free Asia)

In 2001, government authorities had become unsettled by the rapid population growth at the institute. Alarmed by what they termed “splittist” activities, and particularly unnerved by its growing popularity among ordinary Han Chinese—at the time, Han Chinese at the academy numbered more than 1,000—the authorities sent in thousands of security personnel and laborers, who evicted all but 1,400 of the monastery’s 9,000 inhabitants and razed 2,400 dwellings. Many of the nuns and monks turned out from Larung Gar made their way southwest to the more remote Yarchen Gar monastic community, still largely hidden from the outside world by its geographical remoteness and political restrictions put in place by the government. Because of these restrictions, most of the monks and nuns at Yarchen Gar are not officially recognized and live in fear of eviction.

The site of the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy was chosen by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok because of its historical connection to the Vajrayana tradition. It is said that His Holiness the first Dudjom Rinpoche, Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904), stayed here with his 13 disciples. The institute was conceived as an independent center of study that would help revitalize the Dharma and revive the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism following the devastating impact of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–76), during which Tibetan Buddhism was suppressed and thousands of monasteries were destroyed. While the academy initially had fewer than 100 students, the monastic population grew rapidly in the years that followed.

The institute has played a key role in revitalizing the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism since China eased restrictions on religious practice in 1980, and has become renowned for the quality of both its religious and secular education. English, Chinese, and Tibetan languages and modern computer studies are taught alongside a traditional non-sectarian Buddhist curriculum. About 500 khenpos—holders of doctoral degrees in divinity—have studied at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy.Despite its remote situation, Larung Gar evolved from a handful of disciples to be the largest Buddhist settlement in the world.

After his death, Buddha was cremated and the ashes divided among his disciples. Originally his ashes were to go only to the Sakya clan, to which Buddha belonged; however, seven royal families demanded the body relics. To avoid fighting, a monk divided the relics into ten portions, eight from the body relics, one from the ashes of Buddha’s cremation pyre and one from the bucket used to divide the relics.^]After The Buddha’s Parinibbāna, his relics were enshrined and worshipped in stupas by the royals of eight countries.

Marking the celebration of Vesak, the government of Pakistan has loaned sacred bone relics of the Buddha to Sri Lanka, now on public display in a series of expositions at temples across the island nation. Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minster Ranil Wickramasinghe inaugurated the expositions at a ceremony on 21 May at Temple Trees, the prime minister’s official residence in Colombo, in the presence of monks, Buddhist scholars, government officials, and dignitaries from Pakistan.

Vesak, also known as Buddha Purnima or, more informally, Buddha’s Birthday, which commemorates the birth, enlightenment (nirvana), and passing from this world (Mahaparinirvana) of Shakyamuni Buddha, is a public holiday in many countries in Asia and is observed by millions of Buddhists all over the world. In 1999, the United Nations resolved to observe Vesak annually at its headquarters and offices worldwide.

On loan from Pakistan to Sri Lanka are two bone relics of the Buddha, encased in a golden casket, and a stupa-form stone reliquary, all of which are from a collection at Pakistan’s Taxila Museum. The sacred items were originally discovered near the Dharmarajika stupa, the largest Buddhist complex at Taxila and believed to have been established by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. The reliquary is 7.5 inches high and adorned with shallow carved lines and a handle in the shape of a miniature casket.

Under a bilateral cooperation agreement in the field of culture, Irfan Siddiqui, advisor to Pakistan’s prime minister on national history and literary heritage, presented the relics to Sri Lanka’s minister for sustainable development Gamini Jayawickrama Perera at Taxila Museum on 19 May.

In an address at the handover, Siddiqui said, “Today we are here to renew our deep-rooted cultural relations by sending an exhibition of the holy relics of Lord Buddha to Sri Lanka coinciding with the upcoming Vesakh [sic] festival.” He observed that the exhibition was the outcome of Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Sri Lanka from 4–6 January, during which he offered to send Buddhist relics to Sri Lanka on a regular basis. (Pakistan Today)

Pakistan’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Maj. Gen. Syed Shakeel Hussain, noted that Pakistan and Sri Lanka had a long history of mutual support in difficult times and that the exhibition of sacred relics from Pakistan would strengthen cultural ties between the two nations. The Sri Lankan minister thanked the government of Pakistan, noting that millions of Sri Lankan Buddhists were eagerly waiting to view the relics.

After going on public display in Colombo from 21–24 May, the relics were scheduled to be taken to Gampaha (25–26 May), Kurunegala (27–28 May), Kalutara (29 May–1 June), Ratnapura (2–3 June), Galle (4–5 June), Matara (6–7 June), Hambantota (8–9 June), Moneragala (10–11 June), Badulla (12–13 June), Ampara (14–15 June), Polonnaruwa (16–17 June), Anuradhapura (18–19 June), and Kandy (20–21 June). The relics are to return to Colombo on 22 June.

Sri Lankan parliamentary speaker Karu Jayasuriya said the relics would be returned to Pakistan on26 June with the gift of a special golden casket.It is said all the Buddha’s relics will one day gather at the Bodhi tree where he attained enlightenment and will then form his body sitting cross legged and performing the twin miracle.