Guest post by Anne Golla

Thailand has lost one of the legends of Northern Thai massage. “Mama Nit” Chaimongkol passed away August 24 at the age of 83. She suffered a stroke a few months ago which left her in the hospital.

Mama Nit loved teaching her art. Even after she stopped holding regular classes due to age and weakening health, she continued to welcome visitors and sometimes even give impromptu classes in her home in Nong Hoy. Over the last two years, a group of people had been going out to pay respect and visit her regularly, including many from Russia who studied with one of her students in Moscow. She would usually be sitting in her chair by the porch, a tiny woman with her hair cropped in a short pixie cut. Her face would light up when visitors came. She insisted that we call her yaay – grandmother. Her friend and caregiver, Pa Noi, was usually with her, and would offer food or tea. Mama Nit’s hands were always moving, seeking out the arms of guests to instinctively start massaging them.  Her hands were surprisingly small and delicate – birdlike is an apt description – for someone with a reputation for doing very strong jap sen thumb work. They remained strong and carried a surprising energy. As her sight and hearing became weaker, her hands became her main way for “seeing.” When she started working, she would take off her glasses and a peaceful expression would settle on her face.   Pa Noi said that Mama Nit even massaged her doctor when she went to the hospital for her dialysis treatments.

Nit Chaimongkol, known as Mama Nit, was born around 1932 in Sukhotai. She had an early interest in traditional healing.   As a girl, her grandfather would ask her to walk on his back and massage his arms. No one taught her what to do, she just did what she thought would be good and discovered she had a feel for it. She said this intuitive approach is the basis of her technique. The grandfather was a traditional Chinese doctor and acupuncturist and sometimes would direct her to press specific points to help him. Thus, although she never formally studied acupuncture, she learned the traditional Chinese meridians and pressure points, which later became an element in her training in addition to the Thai sen lines. Her mother was a traditional midwife, and Mama Nit remembered accompanying her as she made her visits.

When Nit was young, it wasn’t considered appropriate for a young woman to enter massage as a profession, as it might put her in contact with bad energy or bad intentions from male clients. Only older women could respectably do massage outside the family. Nit pursued formal training in Thai Massage in Bangkok at Wat Chettuwan Temple and at Wat Po in Bangkok, and at the Northern Region Herbal Institute. However, her husband didn’t want her to do massage professionally. Because of that, she made food at home and sold it at Suan Dok hospital. Pa Noi insists she was the best cook of traditional Thai sweets in town. She still did some bodywork with women; giving herbal compress treatments to women after birth. Traditionally, women in Thailand entered yoo fai, a period of rest after childbirth during which they lay on a bamboo bed with a pan of coals underneath to produce heat, and also pots of boiling water with healing herbs such as lemongrass, phai, and turmeric so that the steam would rise and warm the woman’s body. She used the compresses as part of this healing process.

When Nit was in her late 30’s or early 40’s, her husband passed away. She was left with six children to care for on her own. It was then that she decided to focus on massage. She did both general Thai massage, which is intended to relax the entire body, as well as jap sen, or plucking the sen, which was focused on specific areas of injury and intended to drive pain out of the body. She uses her whole hand when she does jap sen, plucking the sen lines with the thumb while pressing in with the fingers. She became known for very energetic, strong work which used the entire body, working along the energy lines and working the wind gates. She also did strong visceral work. Male students from the old days recall that she also did karzai (genital massage) which are remembered as “intense.”   Nit taught both traditional Thai massage and jap sen work as well as acupressure points. She has a fluid approach that emphasizes good sensation and energy, and very precise palpation of tendons and muscles.

Mama Nit used both Chinese and Thai herbs for healing. Herbs are good for the stomach, and also help the muscles relax. Once when she showed me an herbal remedy for inflamed skin consisting of pink chalk and turmeric root, she recalled how when she was a girl this kind of medicine was the only kind people had – there were no “Western” doctors. People had to know how to help themselves with what they could find in nature. She always kept a bag of dried aromatic herbs at hand, including lemongrass, phai, turmeric root (khameen), and camphor.   The herbs can be boiled in water and the steam inhaled.   She took a variety of Chinese herbs for her own care. She would often invite visitor to sample her stock, tapping a bit of the powder into their palm and gesturing to eat it. This was usually accompanied by a lively commentary on which preparations were most tasty and which smelled good or bad. Pa Noi would prepare a dark blackish paste into hot water to make a strong invigorating drink, tasting of turmeric, dried chili, and camphor.

Shortly before her stroke, we asked Mama Nit how she had been able to do Thai massage for so long. She said it was important to have good technique and good body positioning, so that the therapists isn’t putting strain on her own body. The movement should always be easy and not held for too long to keep the energy from getting stuck. One shouldn’t work with muscular tension or a lot of effort – more than once when I came in she told me “Relax your shoulders! You won’t last 30 minutes like that!” To protect from energy from clients, she recommended washing the hands in water after a massage. She also felt respect for the teachers was important to protect against bad energy – in addition to Shivago Kormarpaj or Maw Shivo as he known, she also honored Pha Si Suriyothai (Somdet Phra Sri Suriyothai), a historic queen of Ayutthaya who died defending her husband the King in battle against the Burmese in 1548. Nit’s image of Pha Si Suriyothai Thai showed a beautiful woman in historic garb brandishing a sword and standing in front of an elephant.

In the last two years, a small group, mostly Russians, had been regularly visiting and checking in on Mama Nit when they were in Chiang Mai. Most had never studied with her; some had earlier studied with one of her students.   This group kept in touch via Facebook about how she was doing for those out of the country, when someone left they tried to find someone else to go out. After she was in the hospital, some people continued to visit her almost daily when they were able. Visiting Mama Nit was an opportunity for us to learn from her energy and presence, to practice metta, and to pay respect and give back to teachers. Last year, a fund drive was organized to help her with some of her medical and living costs, as she no longer had income from teaching. She was very touched by this effort and that her students and even non-students from all over the world remembered her and wanted to help her, and enjoyed looking at the photos and messages people sent. She kept saying, “a little bit from a lot of people” – she didn’t want to be a burden and it made her happy that the money came not from one person, but from a collaborative effort of many.  Many thanks to all who helped her with their visits, with contributions, with good intentions.

To help preserve Mama Nit’s legacy, with the permission of her daughter, her student manuals and some other materials have been given to Dr. Rungrat of Mungkala Clinic in Chiang Mai to preserve.   A small booklet of photos from her teaching and students will also be left with Dr. Rungrat.

 

Biographical Note: Anne Golla, when not in Chiang Mai, is based in Washington, D.C. Many of the details of Mama Nit’s life are from a conversation with Mama Nit in spring 2015, with Tick Jitkuekul, a graduate student at CMU, helping with translation.   The article also draws on visits with Mama Nit in summer/fall 2014 and spring 2015 and notes from previous students.

Guest post and photo © Ananda Apfelbaum
www.thaimassagesacredbodywork.com

I feel honored to have been asked to write about Pichest for this website. Pichest has been my teacher since 1992. He is amazing. It is hard to put to words just how amazing he is.

Pichest was born on June 19, 1958 to Bauw and Bauw Jan Boonthumme in Hang Dong, a small village in northern Thailand. They named their baby son Narin. Narin’s father, Bauw, was a traditional Thai doctor and herbalist. His mother, Bauw Jan, was a cook. When I asked Pichest when he had started to learn massage, he told me that as a young child he used to walk on his father’s back to help him relax before going to sleep. Later, when he was seven or eight years old, his father started to teach him massage, herbs and traditional medicine. Pichest said he really did not understand much of what his father taught him until years later, but that, at the time, it taught him patience.

One day when Narin was twenty-three or twenty-four years old he accompanied his father to the Old Medicine Hospital in Chiang Mai where his father needed to pick up some herbs. At the time, Narin was hoping to find any kind of work as he had recently gotten married and needed to support his wife. It so happened that he was offered work that day at the Old Medicine Hospital. He gladly took the job and learned the hospital’s Thai massage techniques. Then, in 1983 he was asked to become a staff member and went on to become one of the hospital’s lead practitioners and teachers.

After some years of teaching at the Old Medicine Hospital, the daily commute from Hang Dong to Chiang Mai (about twenty minutes) got to him and in 1990 Pichest decided to quit.

A couple of years later I found myself studying Thai Massage in Chiang Mai. I studied with various teachers and then wound my way to the Old Medicine Hospital. While studying there, I asked who the great local teachers and practitioners were and Pichest’s name came up.

I soon set out to find him. It wasn’t so easy to find Pichest’s place in Hang Dong, but eventually the driver of the sam-lor (three wheeler auto rickshaw) I was in, did. Pichest warmly welcomed me into his home and sat me down in the main room. Somehow he communicated with me that in order to start studying with him I had to come back with lotus buds, incense, fruit and the class payment. At that time, Pichest spoke no English, so I can’t remember how we communicated.

I soon returned to Chiang Mai with the driver and the next day went shopping for all the required offerings. Then, since I now knew where to get off in Hang Dong, I took a songthaew (open bus) to Hang Dong and then walked down a dirt road that ran along a rice field to Pichest’s house.

Pichest lives in his ancestral home, which is an old two-story building. Upstairs there is a large shrine room where Pichest meditates. It seemed very magical to me the few times I was up there.

When I first started studying with Pichest, he had only one other student. He taught each of us individually. Class was held in the main room, which had a raised section with a Thai mat on it at one end of the room. Even though Pichest and I couldn’t talk to each other, I was able to learn by feeling what he was doing. At that time he was still teaching a sequence that covered techniques in the supine, side lying, prone, inverted and seated positions.

Pichest told me and the other student that he wanted more students, but it seemed hard to get people from Chiang Mai to his house. We tried to help him by making posters, but things really did not pick up. At the time, he was giving sessions to Thai people. There were no “farangs” (westerners) coming for treatment, as no one knew about him.

After I had studied with Pichest for a while, he told me I should leave and practice what I had learned. So I left.

About a year later I returned to Thailand and was taking some very boring classes elsewhere. One of the students there told me she was going that afternoon to get a massage from someone outside of Chiang Mai. She invited me to accompany her. I had no idea where she was going. When we arrived in Hang Dong, I realized we were going to Pichest’s! As I watched Pichest work on her, I realized how greatly his work stood out from the various other teachers and practitioners I had been meeting in Thailand. His every move seemed ergonomic, precise, powerful, fluid like a dancer’s and magical. He seemed to have an uncanny sense of what was needed and seemed directly tuned into her. After the session, she and I decided to quit the boring school in favor of studying with Pichest. That was a turning point for me. From that time onwards, whenever I have been in Thailand, I have only studied with Pichest.

By this time, Pichest knew a little more English, so we could converse some. That was when I found out how he got his name Pichest. When he was twenty-seven years old, he had massaged a monk who was so moved by the treatment that he told Pichest that it was time for a name change. At the time Pichest was still called Narin. The monk then blessed him with the name Pichest which means special, unique, extraordinary. Pichest also explained that Boon, which is the first part of his last name, means good or merit. His name is so apt as he truly embodies a special, extraordinary giver of healing.

While studying with Pichest this second time around, I had my first massage session with him and I remember that his pressure seemed very intense. I also recall the experience of drifting away into a profound state of relaxation when he sat on my leg in the side lying position for a “blood stop” (arterial compression). During consequent treatments I thought that his pressure was less and less intense, but then I realized that it was me who was changing as my body was becoming more and more open; not his pressure lessening!

Pichest told me he hoped to find a place nearby to teach. He wanted to teach in a temple and then confided in me that he really had always wanted to be a monk, but, now that he was married and had a son, couldn’t. The search for a temple for Pichest to teach out of was underway when one day Pichest suddenly announced that he was going to build a school on the land in his garden next to the house. A few days later, construction of his school began.

Before long a building with two rooms was completed. One room was for Pichest’s wife’s spirit work; the other room was for classes. About a third of the classroom became a shrine area filled with statues and pictures of saints, Buddhas, Ganeshes, Jivaka, Kruba Srivichai (Chiang Mai’s patron saint), the Thai royal family, flowers, incense, fruit and beautiful hanging decorations.

From then on, I went annually to Thailand to study with Pichest. His English got better and more students started to come. We decided to run the classes every two weeks starting on the first and third Monday of every month. On these days students were expected to bring offerings – flowers, incense, fruit, money. Pichest would then draw on the top of our heads with a sharp object as if inscribing a blessing.

Classes were from nine to four Monday through Friday. There was a break for lunch, which we took at a little nearby restaurant. Sometimes Pichest would join us there, but more often than not, he ate food prepared by his wife at home. In class, he was often busy reciting prayers and making candles with prayers wrapped inside them. At times, local people came by for his blessings. Many families who were loosing a family member from Aids came to him. He would pray for them. It was very sad.

Pichest, however, didn’t seem to get saddened. I learned that he believed this life was just one in a series of reincarnations so there was no need to be too attached to this incarnation. This really came home one rainy night when we were driving in his car. There were many little frogs on the road and I was so worried we would run them over. Pichest tried to console me saying, “No problem, another life coming.” He has this detached side even though he is so alive and so involved with life.

I think Pichest’s larger view has to do with his meditation practice which he stresses is the most important practice in his life. He explained that meditation has taught him so much, including ways to improve his teaching and massage practice.

Pichest also relies on his dreams a lot and often gets dreams which he says are direct transmissions from Jivako. When he gets these dreams he follows through on the instructions. I remember at one time he was teaching us three inside leg lines. Then one day he told us that from now on we would be thumbing two inside leg lines. When I asked him why, he said he had received instruction from Jivako to change to two pathways in a dream the previous night.

When I asked Pichest who his teachers are besides Jivako, he told me they are the Buddha, the yogi spirit and his father. He also often mentions Kruba Srivichai and Professor Dol Jai who taught at Wat Po and the Old Medicine Hospital. Sometimes he also brings up Lung Ta, a man who used to live in Hang Dong who taught Pichest how to read the old northern Thai language.

Whenever, there was a student in class who had a professional background in some modality such as osteopathy or chiropractic, Pichest wanted to learn from them. After understanding these new techniques, they became a part of Pichest’s work.

Learning with Pichest is much much more than learning Thai massage techniques. It is about learning to be present without preconceptions. He tells people again and again, “Too much thinking” and tries to get them into feeling. Sometimes, when he felt I had a particularly “thinking” question he would raise his cane over my head, but then with a smile lower it.

One of his first words in English was “connect”. He would say connect, connect over and over again while pointing out how each part of the body was connected with the next. He would have us feel areas of tension and show us how they connected to places of tension above and below that area. He always seemed to know exactly what to do to relieve the tension.

In those early days at his school, he did not give Dharma talks in the morning, nor did we recite Om Namo, but I have heard that he now does that. In those days, we just started practicing under his guidance or, if he was busy or sleepy, which he often was, he would nap on his couch and have me teach. I was always amazed how he would wake up and know just who was making what mistake and would then correct them. At the time, we practiced a routine flow over the course of two weeks, which was more or less repeated every two weeks.

Sometimes, I got upset that I was there in Thailand hoping to study and paying for classes, but instead I was teaching and Pichest was sleeping! Finally Pichest and I had a talk about this and he agreed to give me private lessons after class was over. It was during this time that my practice started to get refined and to deepen even though Pichest often was dozing off when I worked on him.

Every day after class, Pichest had clients. His treatments were incredible and I was blessed to have several sessions with him as well as to be able to observe him treating others. His psychic ability would shine through especially when he did blood stops (arterial compressions), as he then seemed able to access hidden information about the person he was working on. Often, after the treatment he would advise the person as to what prayers and offerings they should do to remove certain negative entities or energies.

Whenever, there was a student who had a professional background in some modality such as osteopathy or chiropractic, Pichest wanted to learn from them. After understanding these new techniques, they became a part of Pichest’s work.

Pichest is a master. Years later, I can still “feel” his touch and remember his predictions, advice and care. Pichest’s mastery is from his complete union with his work, with his body and with the person before him. He tunes in to them and knows exactly where they need help and just how to release them.

Eventually, as Pichest was teaching full time and seeing clients every day after class, except Sundays, it became too much and he had a melt down which landed him in the hospital. He was there for quite a while, but finally to everyone’s relief, he came home. After that, Pichest no longer gave treatments after class and the class structure changed. He stopped teaching sequences and instead focused on therapeutics. There was no special format for this. He would work spontaneously on whomever he felt needed to be worked on, using them as a demo for the class. Sometimes he worked on outside people who needed help but they were treated within the context of the class. His teaching continued to emphasize “non thinking” and being present.

My book, Thai Massage Sacred Bodywork, which is dedicated to Pichest, came out in 2003. I went to Thailand to specially give him the book in person. After the book’s release, the number of students finding their way to Pichest rose dramatically and I recently heard that sometimes he has as many as seventy-five students in a class. Gone are the days when Pichest needed students!

Every now and then Pichest sends me a blessing via one or another of my students who is over in Thailand studying with him. Recently, he sent me a little Jivako statue that sits on my windowsill watching over my treatments. It seems as if Pichest is in the room then.

In closing, I pray with folded hands, that Pichest continues to be there for all of us who seek his blessings. May he be blessed with long life, good health, joy, loving kindness, peace and ease.

Guest post by Janice Gagnon

I met Lek Chaiya on my first sojourn to Thailand in 1997. At that time I had no idea that she would come to mean so much to me. Lek Chaiya, affectionately called “Mama Lek,” began to learn Thai massage and healing medicine at a young age from her mother, a healer and a practitioner of midwifery and massage in the village of Jom Thong, Chiang Mai. Lek’s given name was Lek Thiwong. The name “Chaiya” was handed down to her later by her teacher when Lek was made the lineage holder prior to her teacher’s death. Lek also studied herbalism and traditional massage in northern and southern Thailand, raised 2 sons, and eventually founded her own style of Thai massage, called “Nerve Touch” or Jap-Sen (meaning “to grasp” the Sen lines).

Jap Sen is a deep tissue approach that improves joint function and mobility by restructuring and aligning muscles, tendons and bones, and by stimulating pathways in the nervous system. This unique style of Thai massage works to stimulate the flow of energy or “lom” throughout the body by “twanging” or thumb rolling over the intricate system of sen lines and the ridges of muscles. This creates a deeper release of blockages in energy flow and a resonating affect through dense or tight muscles, tendons and nerves. Lek’s style is a very specific approach with the intention focused on relieving painful and even debilitating conditions. Lek Chaiya refined her technique to especially benefit people with numbness and paralysis.

I was fortunate to have private study with Lek in 1997, as she did not advertise to tourists at that time. I learned by workingside by side with her in sessions that treated conditions like persistent back and knee pain, or easing andfacilitating a smooth pregnancy, as well as more serious cases such as paralysis. With regular treatment, a manwho was paralyzed and in a wheelchair was able to walk and even to garden once again. I was fascinated andmoved by Lek Chaiya’s knowledge, confidence and trust in her own abilities. I came toappreciate the nearly miraculous therapeutic changes that took place in her clients, and I began to understandthe potential of Thai massage to evoke deep healing on all levels; physical, mental, and spiritual. I observed one of her clients, an elderly man hunched over with pain and walking with a cane, after only two sessions with Lek (3 days apart) he was able to stand straight and walk unsupported. In another case, a recent stroke victim, 95% paralyzed on one side, was restored to 100% functioning after just a few months of weekly sessions. Witnessing Lek Chaiya and working closely with her gave me a lifetime of inspiration for this work.

The impact of watching a master working in their element is both fascinating and emotionally moving. What is it that makes her a “Master?” A refined and polished sense of touch, lead by purity of heart and excellent intuition. An intention for healing with the focused guidance of an ancient foundation and tradition. She begins and ends each day with prayers to the Buddha, the ancestors and the founder of Thai massage, Shivaka Kumarabhacca. To her, this healing art is an integral part of her everyday life.

I brought Lek to California seven times from 2002-2010, we co-taught together several trainings Basic to Advanced Levels of Nerve Touch Herbal Thai Massage. One night when we were in San Francisco for a sightseeing weekend, I couldn’t sleep. She advised me to recite the traditional mantra “Om Namo” until it calmed my mind. I realized that the spiritual foundation of this ancient healing art is available at each moment. These teachings are handed down through the generations from an early age. I hold dear to me the beautiful image of Lek in the mornings with my young daughter sitting at her side with hands in prayer, eyes closed and hearts open. When Lek Chaiya is giving a Thai massage, she holds this consciousness, this prayer in her movements with a child-like curiosity. This type of mindfulness and confidence clearly evokes change and facilitates deep healing.

Lek Chaiya dedicated most of her life to the study, practice and teaching of Traditional Thai Massage. She developed a style that has helped tens of thousands of people within her lifetime and through the transmission of her work in her teachings will continue to benefit the world.

LEK CHAIYA PASSED AWAY ON APRIL 19, 2013 at the age of 74 years. Lek Chaiya became a mentor, teacher and motherly figure in my life. I know that she has touched the hearts of so many people. She has truly graced us through her loving stewardship of the tradition of Thai massage.

 

LEK CHAIYA’S CERTIFICATES AND AWARDS Special Training: Herbs Royal Project Committee, Lampang Thailand, December 1982 Special training : How to use herbs  Royal Project Committee, Chiangmai, September 1985 Nerve–Touch Massage Basic Training, Committee of Northern Herbs Association. Chiangmai, January 1987 Special Curriculum for Using Herbs, Committee of Herbs Center of Thailand. Chiangmai, March 1993 Special Curriculum for Using Herbs, Committee of Herbs Center of Thailand Chiangmai, January 1996 Award, Special Herbs Training Course, Mae Rim District, Chiangmai, January 1996 Training of advanced study for masseurs, Project of Rehabilitation of Thai Massage, Foundation of Health Development, Bangkok, December 1996 Training of advanced study for masseurs, Foundation of Health Development. Bangkok, December 1997 Appointed: Lecturer of Thai Massage, The Project of Rehabilitation for Thai Masseur(s), Foundation of Health Development, Bangkok. ****** MOTHER LEK CHAIYA PASSED AWAY ON 19TH APRIL 2013, aged 74 years.

 

 Janice Gagnon is the founder of Spirit Winds School of Thai Massage located in Nevada City, CA. She has been studying throughout all regions of Thailand since 1997. She studied at the Institute of Thai Massage and The Old Medi­cine Hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Janice has also studied extensively one-to-one with Master Lek Chaiya in “Jap-Sen” or Nerve Touch Thai Massage. Janice has hosted and co-taught with Lek Chaiya at Spirit Winds since 2002, Lek has been a primary influence in her therapeutic work. Janice is recognized as an Advanced Instructor and Therapist.

Spirit Winds School of Thai Massage
Nevada City, CA
www.spiritwinds.net
530-263-3181