Unesco has listed traditional Thai massage on its prestigious World Heritage list. Nuad Thai is now part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which features traditions and practices passed across the generations.
On 12 December 2019 at Bogota, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, inscribed “Nuad Thai, Traditional Thai Massage” on theUNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The inscription will significantly contribute to the international recognition of Nuad Thai’s value and importance as the intangible cultural heritage on healthcare, and also promote the learning, access, development and safeguarding of Thai Massage for the next generations in and out Thailand.
Nuad Thai, traditional Thai massage, is regarded as part of the art, science and culture of traditional Thai healthcare. As a non-medicinal remedy and manual therapy, it involves bodily manipulation in which the practitioner helps rebalance the patient’s body, energy and structure to treat illnesses believed to be caused by the obstruction of energy flow along ‘sen’, lines understood to crisscross the human body.
This manipulation is intended to normalize the four body elements: earth, water, wind and fire. To open up blocked routes, Thai Massage therapists perform a combination of manipulations using their hands, elbows, knees and feet.
.
.
As shown in the video, Nuad Thai has its roots in self-care in Thai peasant society of the past; every village had massage healers whom villagers would turn to when they had muscle aches from working in the field. Over time, these experiences have evolved into a formal system of knowledge, revitalized by the teaching and the courses of the Watpho Thai Traditional Medicine School in Bangkok: the University of Thai Massage.
.
.
If you’re in Bologna and you’re looking for an original Thai Massage, Cultural Heritage of Humanity, please visit us!
We guarantee the high standards of excellence to offer to you the original Thai massage in a warm and relaxed atmosphere by qualified professionals trained in the best Thai massage school of Thailand, with the knowledge that has been passed down from Bangkok’s Wat Pho temple University.
Should you need more information about us, please check out our website.
To get to know what our clients think of our Center and our treatments, you may also read their opinions right here.
We are waiting for you at Via Boldrini 10/C, Bologna every day, Saturday and Sunday included, from 10 AM to 20 PM.
Sources: Bangkok Post, ICH UNESCO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand
Cover image credit: ICH UNESCO website © Folk Medecine e Thai Health Network Association, 2017
Video credit: ICH UNESCO website © Produced by Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture, Thailand