Thai Massage: Sacred Body Work

Thai Yoga Massage is such a wonderful modality. Not a massage of compressing and rubbing muscle fibers but one of active, dynamic stretching and appropriate fascial skeletal alignment. I am learning more each section I go through and practicing on family every opportunity (I do have a medical background but you can learn and practice with your family without particular certification if you use common sense).

While living here in Thailand and now beginning getting into the habit by once every 3 weeks go to 2 hours massage, I found that I ought to also owe a book about massage. And then after much searching in Amazon I then bought this one, and have found it to be excellent.But as in Amazon we can’t look enough inside the book, I here, among other, have here re-written the correct original contents for the book, the one which we see when holding the book in the hands and then open it:CONTENTSPart 1. The Background1. Massage: Compassion in Action 32. Massage: East and West 53. Thai Massage: A Unique Style 84. The Historical Roots of Thai Massage 195. The Philosophical Foundation of Thai Massage 316. Emotions and the Body 50Part 2. The Practice7. Body Mechanics Used in Thai Massage 558. The Session: Preparation, Effects, and Closure 629. The Traditional Sequence: The Supine Position 7310. The Traditional Sequence: The Side-Lying Position 14811. The Traditional Sequence: The Prone Position 18612. The Traditional Sequence: The Inverted Position 21213. The Traditional Sequence: The Seated Position 226Appendix: Pichest Boonthumme, Thailand’s Master Masseur 249Notes 252Glossary 254Bibliography 256Credits 258Resources 259Brief Biographies 263About the Author: My Story 265Acknowledgments 269Concerning the historical background Thai Massage, it’s very interesting to read the part 1 of the book, where we for example are looking on cards respectively showing Thailand, the Silk Road from China to Europe, and the spread of Theravada Buddhism.And besides the detailed drawing, for the reflexology areas of the feet, which we in Amazon can see inside the book, then actually we also are getting many small drawings over the whole body most of them showing how the different sen’s (energy lines), go in the body. Where the sen are: conduits, channels, fibers, filaments, narrow ridge, line, sinew, and tendon. And by this I then recalled the connecting to the lines which we talk about in acupuncture.In part 2 of the book we again are getting many drawing with the sen’s but now only for the actual part of the body which we now are looking at, where the pressure is done, legs, arm, or only a hand, and so ob. And here in part 2 of the book we are getting enormous many pictures, that is for each single massage activation, and to each picture detailed writing telling how and why for the actual activation.As the last of these pictures are having the number 209, and quite a bit of them have parallel pictures having equal numbers but then also letters, starting with A, and for some continuing up to E; so at least there must be 250 of these pictures telling and showing the pressure-applying done.And some of the pictures are showing many strange pressures as I have never seen before. And especially when we go to the chapter 12, “The Traditional Sequence: The Inverted Position”, there on quite a bit of the pictures it’s hard to see what’s upside down, so if we rotate these pictures 180 degrees these pictures nearly look the same, that is, it’s hard to see who being the masseur.And as a side remark, by the start of nearly all of the chapters we are getting short writings from His Holiness the Dalai Mama.So, it’s an enormous detailed book concerning Thai Massage for healing the body, the mind, and the spirit.

I loved this book! Everything from the details of words and image to the transparency of the author's ethos. A must-read for anyone interested in this technique.

Great book!! Easy to follow. Lots of pictures..

Good info

Knowing full well that I may never actually do Thai Massage, I bought this book. And the quotes in it alone, made it worth it. Also, it is a lovely book about Thai massage.

The instructions in this book are clear and concise, and especially helpful in conjunction with Ananda's live courses.

I recently received my book in the mail. The weirdest thing, when I was deciding on which thai yoga book to buy, I read various reviews on various books. Since returning to the site, I don't see a single review on this book?? Maybe it's listed twice? Either way, I think the book is fairly good. If your more of a "visual" person much like myself I would recommend buying something different. Immediately, I was disappointed by the illustration (photos) in this book !!! They pretty much appear as if someone xeroxed them to the point much of the photo quality has been lost. Also, their in black and white. I would recommend this book to someone, as an additional reference to other books, dvd's, and resources on thai yoga.