THAI ACCUPRESSURE
Medical massage is practiced in Thailand since the Sukhotai era (1240 to 1320).
Throughout Thai history, the ruling Royal caste made an effort to collect, record, and store medical knowledge, and a mainstream body of knowledge was created. Medical knowledge had originally passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, but since the Sukhotai era, it was preserved also in stone inscriptions, on palm leaves, and by other means. In 1836 over 1,000 formulas and the knowledge and theory of traditional medicine regarding the origin of diseases and their treatments were gathered and inscribed on marble tablets and placed on the walls of Wat Po and Wat Raja Oros. The marble tablet inscriptions also included the principle of Thai traditional massage with explanations of the symptoms or diseases each massage spot could heal. In the carvings are 60 diagrams of the body. Twenty of them explain the energy lines and the four elements of earth, water, wind and fire; the other 40 describe the effect of the therapy points. Many of these points are used for the treatment of orthopedic disorders, but many others are aimed at treating internal disorders. Treatment of internal disorders with the use of these points is an advanced practice involving a deep knowledge in the theory of Thai traditional medicine.
During the history, generations of practitioners composed combinations of massage spots to treat many diffferent orthopedic ailments.
It is an illustration of one of the 60 marble tablet inscriptions of the Massage Pavilion in Wat Po. This diagram shows the front aspect of Sen Itta with its therapy points.This diagram is taken from the book "Thai Traditional Massage Instruction" by Preeda Tangtrongchitr, founder of the school of Wat Po in Bangkok. The explanations for the points originate in the book "Sen Massage" by Heinz Kasik, but have been rephrased.