Authenticity

The following essay was originally published in the Shivago Journal, published by Tao Mountain, in 2006. It was recently re-published by Massage Magazine. However, Massage Magazine edited the essay to such an extent as to render the thesis of the essay into the direct opposite of my intention. This error extended even to changing the title of the piece from "Authenticity" to "An Ever Evolving Patchwork". The thoughts presented below on the evolution of Thai massage were intended to lead the reader to my final conclusion that non-Thai practitioners of Thai massage should leave the evolution of Thai massage to the Thai people. This section of the essay was omitted in the version printed in Massage Magazine, which left the essay appearing to support the idea that it is proper for us to mutate Thai massage as we see fit. I was deeply saddened to see this drastically edited version in print as I have always maintained that it is very important to stay true to Thailand, honoring where this art comes from and not presuming to altar it while still calling it "Thai". As Thai massage becomes ever more popular in the West it is being "westernized" at an alarming speed and it is becoming harder and harder to find Thai massage that truly reflects it's roots.

Authenticity
By Nephyr Jacobsen

The old man from the Village must be somewhere in his late eighties. He is made of seventy-two thousand wrinkles. After the bowing, the offerings and the request, I become the first western student he has ever accepted. His massage style is rough and loving at the same time. He says things like “this cures paralysis”, as his knee goes through my leg into the mat below. This through the interpreter, direct communication is saved for smiles and nods and pained yelps. He tells me that you must be very brave to heal people because to heal people you must hurt them. I begin to understand something about my own limitations as a healer.
I ask him, “are you working with the sen* lines?” He does not understand. I say, “sen kalathari, sen ittha, sen sumana...” He grunts, smiles, says “this is much older than all that”. As if I had just asked Mozart if he was influenced by Madonna. Those new fangled sen lines.
I watch the old man work on my husband. He uses his feet a lot. They are the most beautiful feet I have ever seen. They are strong and ancient and know the earth. I photograph his feet, always amazed at how the Thai welcome cameras into the sacred. My husband’s forehead is an expression of pain. The old man laughs and keeps working. I’m thinking about the differences in what I am learning, and what I have been previously taught about Thai massage. I’m thinking about the words “this is much older than all of that”, and suddenly I understand the difference between the rural and royal traditions of Thai massage. For the first time it makes sense in a tangible way that isn’t made out of academic words. And as I begin to comprehend this difference I can see the thread between my different teachers, where one leads to the other. Where some have stuck to the refined “royal” tradition, where others have gone back and brought the village into their work. Watching this old man twist and knead and press into my husband, I understand all of my other teachers better. I understand roots.
I think about how we like to throw around the word “authentic”. We are practicing “authentic” Thai massage. We are preserving “authentic” Thai massage. That person over there, is not teaching “authentically”. In Thailand, it is harder to be so clear about what is, and what is not “authentic”. What I am seeing in the old man from the village, is about as authentic as it gets. And yet, if you look at Thai culture, you see that one of the most authentically Thai things, is change. Thai people have this amazing abiilty to take things from other cultures, embrace them, and set them forth again as something new, something Thai.
Today on the streets of Chiang Mai one sees Thai people getting foot massages by the hundreds. On every block there is some place where you can get a “Thai foot massage”. One would think that foot massage has always been integral to Thai culture, yet my “Thai foot massage” teacher at the Old Medicine Hospital says to me “foot massage been here about 15 years. Comes from China and Taiwan”. But it isn’t exactly what came from China and Taiwan. Already it has been embraced and set forth anew. And already it is being sold as “authentic Thai”.
I have been fortunate to have Thai massages from some of the masters in Thailand. They all work differently. Not only do they have their own style, but they don’t even agree on where the sen lines are. One of them travels regularly to China, Tibet, pilgrimages of learning. He brings back what he learns and incorporates it into his work. If I mix Chinese techniques into my Thai massage I am no longer doing “authentic Thai massage”, but this is not the case with a master in Thailand. He is not diluting the pure tradition, he is maintaining the pure tradition. For it is, a tradition of change.
Stepping for a moment outside of the legend of 2500 years and Doctor Jivakakomarpaj, we can see that a historical look at Thai massage shows an evolving tradition, a patchwork of modalities, with an Indian backcloth. In true Thai form, the pieces of material were taken from here and there, embraced and set forth again as something new, something Thai. If this evolution did indeed begin 2500 years ago, it is important to realize that it didn’t stop there. And it didn’t stop in the 10th century with the development of yoga and nadis. The evolution of Thai massage continues to this day. All over Thailand, at this very moment, people are trying new things, changing, and embellishing their massage style. The masters of the craft are not masters through stagnation. They are masters because they have not only practiced for twenty or sixty years, but they have also learned for that long. They continue to learn, to change, to grow. Authentic Thai massage continues to learn, to change, to grow.
But what of the old man from the village, who is not interested in sen lines? How is he evolving Thai massage? And what about the western people who make stuff up like “Thai for the table”? Does this mean that we can call that “authentic”?
The old man’s style does evolve. It just doesn’t evolve into sen lines. It evolves in a path that is more directly connected to the people it came from, with less influence from the standardized systems of Wat Pho. And in a way, “Thai for the table” is a part of the living tradition of Thai massage, but I cannot call it “authentic”. It is not wrong, but I think that we should leave the evolution of “authentic Thai massage” to the Thai people. My opinion, that’s all. And while I believe that we should not teach things like “Thai for the table” under the label of “authentic”, I think it is important not to get bogged down in thinking there is any one way to do Thai massage.
At the end of the day the old man from the village gives me back one of the flower garlands that I gave him. He places it around my neck and he tells me that he loves me. He tells me that once someone agrees to be your teacher, they are forever your teacher. Even if you never see them again. He says that he is my teacher always, and that when he dies, he will protect me, because he is my teacher. I think he knows that I will not see him again on this journey. And we both know, that he may not be alive the next time I come to Thailand. I leave him, and take my gifts. A flower garland, a few new massage techniques, and a tiny new spark of understanding of the place from which this art comes. I look at that little spark from time to time and blow gently on it to keep it from going out. There is still so much more for me to learn. The thoughts I am having about roots and authenticity are new and not fully formed. They are like knowing ten sen lines out of seventy-two thousand.