Buddha between the ropes

of Stefano Pernatsch

The pleasant thailandese people are much legacy to the religion of its native land, the buddhismo Theravada, the buddhismo of the first hour, that he includes sporadic reminiscenze of induismo and that popularly implies one sure dose of hidden. In this humid giungle, in fact, primitivo animismo encounter to a process of mutation and adaptation has gone that has concurred to it to survive between the folds of the cults succeeded to you, much more if tolerant draft of, the nearly sincretico one, buddhismo. These aspects have always enriched also a permeating feature the siamesi civilizations: the martial art, than was dealt to move war to the adjacent enemies or eleggere the champion of a village.
Siamesi amulets and talismans Antichi designs show as already in far away passed the thailandesi guerrieri shirts went in battle wearing or bands while still alive that they brought written over magical letters, numbers, symbols and designs, which could also be tatua you on the body; such diagrams often are vergati in a famous esoteric language only to the monaci buddhisti. Thanks to their influence, the combatants would have been immune from knives, swords, arrows and even bullets, that they left only a small sign of burn. Sometimes they were instead legacies to the scopes opposed you of the black magic (saiyaveja), but one says that in this case they lost their power very soon. Also the soldiers of the ere medieval carried around to the head and the arms bands of a material that for they had particular meaning, like the hem of pakima1 of the parents, one ciocca of hats of persons loved or also of the small religious objects, like very small statuine of buddha, wrapped in the stoffa. Draft of the formine become famous between the collectors like the amulets more searches you of the Thailandia, whose power comes activated reciting on they a buddhista prayer (in khata thailandese) that in such case "benedictory evocation" takes to the title it of Buddhamahaniyom ().
The main giaculatoria is phra katha the Chinabunchorn, than, pronounced in the just way from the guerriero, it diffuses down from the head in one risen of magical screen protecting saying gum pang kaw jed chun ("seven barriers of glass mirrors"). Many think that the amulets with the more effective blessing are phra the Somdej, than have received it, also for spiritistiche ways, from Somdej To. This power came to the saint when nottetempo an individual of dressed white man appeared it in meditation (nimitta) fulgido: Aong Tao Maha Phrom Chinabunchara, disciple of one of the five follows to us original of Buddha. These said to Somdej To that if indeed wanted to learn to bless amulets in order to help the humanity, would have taught the just ceremony to it, the Teva Bunyud, otherwise said Phroma Bunyud; it was based just on the Chinabunchara, elective instrument for invocare to it appeal to the candid saint. A declaration of the same Somdej To expresses the importance of the Chinabunchara: "If, anytime, you will pray with this khata, you will be protect from every badly". To this category of manufatti, most diffuse of which are the five buddha Benjapakee thread to you with on a gold necklace, belong not only the amulets, but also of the talismani2, about which the thailandesi combatants they thought test to fortify itself. The talismans would have conferred they determination, courage and force. Nothing better than a tiger symbolizes in East these characteristics, from which the fascination that in Thailandia encircles the khiaoser, literally "tiger tooth (khiao) (ser)"; draft in kind of a model of the fair carved in a its tooth (is the more precious exemplary) or in one of bear, in the zanne of other animals, ivory, the wood or the metal. The manufacturer better than these objects was Luang Phor Parn (1825-1911), of Wat Bangheah, which they follow for importance its disciples.
This anelito to the sacred one of the thailandesi guerrieri manifest also in the fact that they have always had the habit to withdraw themselves in the templi and to a sure age could also be abandoned the lay world and is made monaci. Here they did not stop to teach to their martial limbs, parimenti correlated closely to the buddhismo and to its institutions, com' he is obvious from the rituali and the apotropaici attitudes that tutt' hour they accompany to them. These uses, in fact, continue today in the new guerrieri of the Thailandia, the boxers of the muay thai, which the master cure to teach also to the formulas and the magical rituals of need. Rituals of initiation the access of a disciple to the mystical universe of the muay thai happens after the first twelve months of training, through the ritual of initiation Kheun Kru (traducibile like "Day of the master"), that it sanctions the admission to a field of training (kai) in the martial limbs. Such ceremony will come then repeated every year, assuming the title it of Yohk Kru. In kind the date prechoice falls of thursday, considered the day of the master, let alone of the God of the limbs and the trades. The student door to house of the precettore flowers white men, a small gift in silver, incense rods, candles, salviette and a water container, more six coins from venticinque satang and six pieces of woven of cotton white man. The master, seated and of dressed white man, receives the future disciple raising over its head a guantone (introduced in the muay thai approximately average century makes) or the mongkon, the sacred crown, and afferrandogli the extended arm. The student inchina to he three times and the master is begun to urge the "blessing of the acquaintance": "Buddhang prasit dhammang prasit sangkang prasit, Narayana is chao prasit Pawantute". Hour the hands of the student are free and it inchina three times to Rama, porgendogli respect, therefore others three times to the master, that he pronounces an ulterior blessing: "Siddhi Kijang, siddhi Kammang, siddhi Techo, chaiyo Nijang, chaiya siddhi Pawantute". For the ceremony they come prepared also of the culinarie offered ones: pig, duck, pollo, yield and other foods, that they will serve then for one festicciola between the neoiniziati ones. Before the main ransom with a knife one animal portion of meat and the porge to the student, reciting: "This piece is given from Narayana to all its disciples for dargli force and long-lasting happiness".
The student makes an other gesture of respect and eats the meat, therefore he comes cosparso of the Saint water that lies in a large basin to the center of the room. There is always a large Saint water container and a statue of Buddha, that it is placed to the center in order to bring testimony to the ceremony. For the student it is reached the time finally to wear the sacred crown of cotton, the mongkon, loaded from the incantesimo: "chana Om sri siddhi deja satru Na But Pa Ta You - If your mind had to be sad, afflicted, confused, Namo Buddhaya will place to you under the infuence of a incantesimo, believing that I am Ong Promma Chaiya Siddhi Pawantume". In this ceremony often it comes recited also one of the incantesimi of which king Naresuan in its march against the birmani used: "Pra chao pra ong namo Buddhaya; Na yan bot songkram, But tid tam satru, Bud tor on pairs rin, Cha sin pol krai, chana Ya chok chai ". Naresuan is the king whom the Siam in 16° the century governed and was the first great hero of the muay thai. When he came captured from the birmani with which he was in war and that very they knew its ability in the martial limbs, the enemies proposed it a combat: if he had won, would have been free to go itself some. Returned in native land, popular Naresuan rendered its method of combat, standard-bearer of the muay thai. Moreover the sovereign nobleman made resorted to the aid of numi also in the combat the body to body with the enemy, reciting the following prayer: "Na dej rukran But tao harn Fan fad Pa pikat home huek Ta prab suek toi tod". Memori of these fulgidi examples, the students as soon as it begins to you complete finally the oath to study with seriousness and patience, to respect the master, to behave themselves kindly with their companions and to use in just way the acquaintance that they will obtain. Therefore they receive based on the personal characteristics a name from combat, than in kind it contains the title it of the field in which they are in order to make their income and for which they swear to always fight. On the battlefield Hour comes for practicing the moment to demonstrate of forehead to an adversary which has learned. The boxer enters in the ring adorns of the amulets that will give a reservoir to it additional of force, resistance and determination, beyond to proteggerlo from the damages caused from its adversary like from the malignant spirits. To the neck he has the pong malai.
Pong malai means "group of flowers literally" and is a floreale crown similar to one hawaiana she, than manifest the pleasant attitude of the thailandesi and that it comes delivered to the combatant from its friends and the supporters. Under the language it has a leaf of nan sometimes, because it believes the preserverà one from the blows of thicker and resistant elbow and ginocchio rendering the cute to the cuts. The arm or the arms of the boxer is encircles, the deltoid right under to you, from an other protecting amulet, kruang ruang (the ring from arm), alias prachiat (amulet of good auspice), that it will come worn also during the combat and that in adding will confer suppletive force and power. The kruang ruang it is made of pha salu, one stoffa thin of good quality, more often than color red white man or also, based on the choice of the master and above all to the specific characteristics of the amulet. Of usual the symbols and the numbers contained in the kruang ruang are the maha amnart or the chatri mahayanta, which the master, monaco or an expert of witchcraft instills of the hidden powers. The writing of these numbers or symbols happens in the course of a ceremony in which they come recited of the magical formulas. Also the prachiat it came worn from the guerrieri of the antiquity, around the arms, to the forehead or on the head. Theirs were a piece of stoffa that it contained magical letters and designs or also objects as statuine of buddha rolls up to you in a cylinder. The combatant receives its kruang ruang from a tightened relative, its master or a monaco.
Celebre a manufacturer of prachiat of the recent thailandese history was, during the reign of the monarch Rama I, Chaem Abbot of the monastero Chalong, to Phuket, than she prepared some in abundance to wear around to the forehead in forecast of the combats against the Chinese secret societies. When one is about to fight, the temples of the boxer then are encircled from the mongkon - or mangala -, a protecting amulet that is believed is of good auspice for the combat and protection for the several lottatore from dangers. Servants but not to defend the head, because second the thailandesi this part of the body is the only one that cannot be protect with the magic. In the local culture, in fact, the head is considered the more important part of the body, in practical a sacred object, therefore like, in contrast, the feet are consider you gretti and dirty. The head of a combatant would not never have porsi under null, for which it must enter and exit from the ring passing over to the ropes, never between they. The mongkon it is a woven strip of, a special thread of cotton, rolled up closely in order to hide to its inside magical letters and symbols. It seals an all seam that includes a sacred thread and protecting saying you know sin. It comes then added a more external layer, an other woven strip of blessed from a monaco or an expert of magic, that it will go to sporgere on the neck of the boxer. Sometimes the mongkon it can be a simpler coil than rope, than in some places it is formed from strisce of apotropaico thread coiled for a diameter of approximately an inch.
Once constructed, it is used to make to bless the mongkon in seven monasteri. Therefore dressed, the boxer knows them on the ring and carries out the rituali of the wai kru, otherwise dictates bucha kru ("to carry regarding teaching"), a diffuse ceremony also in others ambles to you - as an example the dance, music or quite the university - where the discente proclama the respect and the gratefulness for the teacher puts into effect them and for all teaching of its lineage. Kru means in fact "instructor", wai "to inchinarsi with respect": the ducking to teaching, therefore, to be carried out with the hands committees to height of the forehead, in the typical thailandese salute. Through the wai kru a tie is settled down, a line of continuity with the masters and the heroes of the past, with the own guerriera tradition, feelings that above all in the combatant go to evoke I reinforce psychological important, end nearly one reactive formation. After offering floreali to the guardiano spirit of the ring in order to make sure the Victoria, the boxer begins the wai kru carrying to the center of the square and inchinandosi in the four directions, for greeting the public, but probably with the recondite meant one to begin the complex of rituali that will carry it to get hold of the vital space of the combat. Then it returns to its angle and if it has I wear a bathrobe of it comes undressed. From it leaves again here supporting the right hand on the higher rope and making it to slide symbolically on it while with marked the rhythm step it walks along the ring in counter-clockwise sense, "sealing the ring" and excluding to the outside of it, from a part ominous infuences (3), from the other anyone not is fighting. It is like if it declared the adversary: "Hour you and I are alone". He moreover seems to ask the permission to fight, the blessing of the good spirits, and in summa taking control the challenge land. Therefore the boxer returns to the center of the square and he kneels down himself turned in the direction of its place born them or its field. Inchina three times with the hands committees in front of the ace, until touching earth with the forehead. Every boxer gives to meant its just to these three duckings, dedicating some everyone to a particular entity: Buddha, masters, schools, places, etc. Usually, the adressees are the three foundations del buddhismo, the "three jewels": Buddha, the community of its faithfuls (sangha) and its instruction (dharma).
The time for the combatant comes hour to begin ram muay ("the movement of boxing"), one complex we danced rituale in which movements that imitate human animals and folkloristic figures, like rondini, monkeys, hunters, soldiers, archers enter. In many cases, the pantomima one finishes with the symbolic killing of the opponent, hurling towards its angle arrow or one nozzle, or trafiggendolo with one sword; someone mima even the excavation of one fossa in which ficcare the opposing head, stamping then the foot to you over. In origin, beyond preparing the body of the boxer for the crash that attended it with trofismi and muscular lengthenings, the ram muay it served also to take confidenza with the land on which it was fought, ground brullo before the advent of the ring. E' an important moment also for the mind, since concurs to enter in one be of deep concentration overwhelms of determination. Scandire it is ram muay that the successive combat, the rhythm of thailandese classic music, played rigorously from alive with the devout ones Chawa, ching and glawng khaek, traditional pifferi and tamburi. The rhythm increases with the climax of the challenge, marking the rhythm in ipnotico way the movements of the boxer with an influence subconscio. Of probable Indian origins, devout the Chawa (piffero of Giava) is flauto to two sections of wood or made ivory with the ancia of metal or walnut; it derives exactly from giavanese music and in far away already passed it accompanied the military parades and the combats of krabi krabong. The melodiosi ching (onomatopeico term) are two cembali from the diameter of 6 or 7 centimeters that hold the time. Finally, the glawng khaek they are two tamburi - said yours pu (male) and yours mine (female) - made of skin joined year-old calf or goat and from cane of India: the na rui ("literally wide") it has a diameter of 20 centimeters, while na tan ("the external head") of 18. Finished the ram muay, us inchina towards the angle of the adversary in order to show itself regarding he and to its school, therefore the athlete returns in just the angle, where its kru will remove it mangala and the pong malai, hanging them to the pole of the angle. The combatant, in fact, would not have neanche to touch the mongkon, because she does not belong to he, but to its school, and she serves therefore to ricordargli also that in the combat he if of ago representative.
Hour the master whispers a particular balinese prayer of good famous fortune like Breath of Buddha, therefore he blows three times on the forehead of the student, center of the third eye. Hour the fight can begin. In past it was enough to see the style of the ram muay and the mongkon of a combatant in order to know of the region or the field of origin (let alone for intuirne the courage, the determination and the ability), but today these features distinguished to you permangono only in little lottatori still legacies to the old ways, comprised of the more and more rare styles of traditional combat in the same Thailandia. But the ethnic roots of many thailandesi are salde, so that in their hearts the tradition still enjoys the respect of a time. E' an inheritance that continues to testify a fight for the survival not less arduous that in passed ages, pushing this gentle race to fight like loving, traditionally.
Notes
1- pakima are a head of clothing similar to a carried skirt are from the men who give the women. 2- the amulet is an object that protegge from negative magical forces, while the talisman has the scope of procurare something. 3- ominous Influence is considered also the presence of a woman on the ring, in how much would emanate negative vibrations.