Nuad Boran | Benefits of Thai Massage | History

The history of Nuad Boran can be traced back to the legendary Indian healer Doctor Jivaka Komarabaccha, physician to the Buddhist Monastic Order and possibly the Buddha himself.
          Jivaka’s story appears in Pali, Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit scriptures. In the Pali version, Salavati, a Raja’s courtesan,
"gave birth to a son, who was then given to a slave woman, who placed him in a winnowing basket, which was thrown on a rubbish heap… the infant [was] taken and raised by the King’s son Abhaya… Jivaka, as he approached the age at which he must seek his own livelihood, decided to learn the medical craft. Hearing about a world-famous physician in Taxila [modern-day Pakistan], he travelled to that city, famous for education, to apprentice with the famous doctor. After seven years of medical study… with the blessings of his mentor, he went off to practice medicine."

The famous Doctor was Atreya, the ‘King of Physicians’ who among other things had mastered ‘the art of opening skulls‘. One Buddhist Medical Training Scripture, the ‘Blue Beryll Tantra’,  depicts Atreya and Jivaka standing before the throne of the Buddha. Though there are many tales attributed to Jivaka and his miraculous abilities, it is agreed that he donated a mango grove to the monastic order, and later built a monastery there. Before the advent of the monasteries, the sangha, or community of Buddhist monks, consisted of wandering hermits, who roamed the Gangetic plains of India during the dry months and took refuge in parks and groves during the rains.
          The medical system practiced by Jivaka and later developed and codified in the monasteries was Ayurveda, the Indian ‘Science of Life’. Ayurvedic medicine is based on the theory of the three constitutions or doshas, which are balanced in a healthy person but imbalanced in an unhealthy person.  The three doshas are vata/air, pitta/fire and kapha/moisture. Healthy diet and lifestyle were integral to the management of the doshas. Though 5000 years old, Ayurvedic medicine is still practiced in India today.

read more