Muay Thai reaches the world
Posted by admin on February 28th, 2010 filed in Beach areas, Entertainment, Lifestyling, Thai habits, Uncategorized, just visiting, nightlifeI’ve just heard the news that the World Thai Martial Arts Festival will be taking place in Ayutthaya next month. As someone largely uneducated in matters of martial arts, I initially thought this was a contradiction in terms. How can it be a ‘World’ festival if it’s also a ‘Thai’ festival. The answer came that it was not referring to the location with the title’ Thai Martial Arts’ but in fact the type of discipline.
The festival, which will run from the 10th to the 17th of March, has been established in order to celebrate the ancient art of Muay Thai boxing. I’ve been to see a few Muay Thai fights during my time in Thailand, and although I was aware that it was a very popular sport here, I didn’t realised that it crossed borders to any larger extent than the odd western bloke giving it a go on his holidays. This, of course, was a very naive attitude and I have since learned that Muay Thai is now one of the world’s most popular martial arts.
So for anyone who really does know what they’re talking about when it comes to Muay Thai, the Ayutthaya Stadium will be the venue for the festival, where traditional ceremonies will be performed before a bout of matches and tournaments. There will even be training workshops on offer to the novices, so maybe I should give it a go and see what all the fuss is about.