People of several South-East Asian countries, including Thailand, practice a form of ‘hard’ martial art known as ‘Muay Thai’. Similar arts are practiced in other countries of the region:

Myanmar has ‘Lethwei’; ‘Tomoi’ is practiced in Malaysia; ‘Kun Khmer’ is Cambodia’s indigenous ‘hard’ martial art and ‘Muay Lao’ is practiced in Laos.

Muay Thai is Thailand’s national sport, and has a long history in the country. The ancient ‘Muay Boran’ has been modified greatly to become Mauy Thai as practiced now, which uses punches and kicks and is practiced in a ring with gloved participants, rather like Western boxing.

Hands, elbows, shins, and knees are all used in Muay Thai, which is also therefore known as ‘The Art of Eight Limbs’. Thus, a ‘nak muay’, as the practitioner of Muay Thai is known, can use eight points of contact to execute strikes, as opposed to the two or four points used by the practitioners of Western-style boxing and sport-oriented martial arts, respectively.

Muay Thai, which places emphasis on offense, defense, and stamina, can be learnt by people of either sex and all ages. As the interest in Muay Thai is developing, several martial-arts schools all over the world, whether in Europe, America, or Asia, have started teaching it. To be proficient, the player should know some basic

Muay Thai is fought in five rounds, each three minutes long, with interludes of two minutes length. Before the fight, the contestants pay homage to their teachers in the wai khru dance, which, besides being symbolic, is also good as a warming-up exercise. The boxers wear headbands and armbands. Of these, the headband, which is called mongkhol, is said to bestow luck to the wearer, once blessed by the boxer’s teacher, or by a monk. As Buddhism and the Muay Thai teacher are both prominent in the boxer’s life, the headband thus functions as both a spiritual object and a lucky charm. It is removed after the wai khru dance; this removal can be done only by the boxer’s trainer. The armbands, however, are said to bestow protection and, thus, are removed only after the end of the fight.

The stadium hosting the Muay Thai match must take care to provide the equipment necessary for it. A stopwatch, a warning bell, a signal gong, boxing gloves, equipment that can provide water for the boxers must all be supplied by the stadium. The gloves are of different sizes according to the rules. Equipment for the boxers who have not brought their own accessories, like red and/or blue boxing shorts, jock straps, surgical tape, sacred cords, etc. are also provided by the stadium.

Muay Thai is of two major types: muay lak is the first of these. It puts emphasis on patience and caution. This type, interestingly enough, is rarely seen anymore.

The second type is called Muay Kiew. It is full of feints and tricks that aim at catching the opponent off-guard. Muay Kiew is more popular than Muay Lok, perhaps for understandable reasons.