The eight limbs
อาวุธทั้งแปด
The phrase that names the sport in English — the art of eight limbs — is a count: fists, elbows, knees and shins, two of each.
Muay Thai
The eight limbs, the thirty named techniques, and 527 places to train on the map
8limbs
30named techniques
14out of the epic
527gyms mapped
58countries
1,186fighters on record
Two fists, two elbows, two knees, two shins
Eric Langley · CC BY 2.0Eight limbs, and the count is the argument
Boxing has two. Kickboxing has four. Making the elbow and the knee legal changes every distance in the fight.
The eightStart here
Four ways to win a fight
สี่แบบของนักมวย
Thai commentary sorts fighters into four kinds, and it is the most useful thing anyone can hand a first-time spectator.
How a fight is actually scored
การให้คะแนน
Three judges, five rounds, one decision. Everything else about it is different from boxing, and the differences are what make a visitor think the…
Why you thought he won
ทำไมคุณคิดว่าเขาชนะ
The most common experience a first-time spectator has, and the five reasons for it.
Your first session
รอบซ้อมแรกของคุณ
What actually happens, in order, at a gym in Thailand that takes walk-ins.
What an evening is shaped like
รูปร่างของหนึ่งค่ำคืน
The running order of a card, and where in it to arrive.
Sak yant
สักยันต์
A tattoo that is a working object: geometry and syllables in an old script, applied by a master, carrying protection, fortune, charisma or fear — and…
The Mangrai law, 1296
มังรายศาสตร์
The oldest law code of Lanna, compiled from the Indian Dharmaśāstra, in 27 sections. The English article on muay thai names it as the oldest recorded…
The finding
KengCH · CC BY-SA 3.014named for the Ramakien
29 of the 30 names are a picture, not an instruction
A crocodile's tail. A bird leaving its nest. Hanuman handing over a ring. Only one of the thirty describes the movement, and it does that in Sanskrit.
All thirtyWhat this holds
The eight weapons 5
Two fists, two elbows, two knees, two shins. What each one is for, what it costs to throw, and what it scores.
Techniques 13
The thirty named techniques, and the handful of everyday ones that win most fights. Every name is a picture.
The schools 12
Chaiya, Korat, Lopburi, Thasao — four regions, four answers, one rhyme that ranks them.
The ceremony 7
The headband, the armbands, the dance before the fight, and the tattoo under the shirt.
The band 5
Four instruments play every fight in Thailand, live, and they speed up when it matters.
The fights 2
Single nights that changed what the sport was allowed to be.
People 15
Fighters, kings, trainers and the one prisoner of war everybody starts with.
Stadiums 5
Where the fights are, which night, and what a ticket actually gets you.
Gyms and camps 4
Every place in the world OpenStreetMap knows you can train, grouped by country, plus the camps that made the sport.
Training 7
What two sessions a day actually consist of, in the order they happen.
The rules 6
Five rounds, ten points, one winner — and almost none of it works the way boxing does.
Kit 6
Rope, gloves, shorts, anklets, oil. What each is, what it costs, and what it does to a fight.
History 14
Ayutthaya to the ring, in the episodes that are actually documented and the ones that are not.
Places 7
Where the schools came from and where the fighters still come from.
Bodies 4
Who writes the rules, who sanctions the belts, and who disagrees with whom.
Open questions 4
Children in the ring, women in the ring, heads that take ten years of kicks. Both arguments, named.
Words 10
The words a corner shouts, with their roots, so you know what just happened.
On screen and on the wall 3
The statues, the films and the song that taught most of the world the word.
Counted for this site
Wonmerome · CC BY-SA 4.0527 places to train, in 58 countries
The sport's own OpenStreetMap tag found 275 of them. The other 252 are there because a gym put the word in its own name.
The mapOpen questions
Children in the ring
เด็กบนเวที
Thai children fight professionally from single-digit ages. The Boxing Act sets a minimum age for professional competition; the English article says…
What ten years of kicks does
ผลของการรับแรงสิบปี
Injury rates, what they are made of, and the part of the question that is not settled.
How old is any of this
เรื่องนี้เก่าแค่ไหน
The line between what is documented and what was assembled later, which runs through almost every origin claim on this site.
Women in the ring
ผู้หญิงบนเวที
Women fight professionally in Thailand, at every provincial ring and on stadium cards. The restriction that made the sport famous for excluding them…
Where it starts
Arjarn Sira · CC BY-SA 4.01296the first written muay
Not in Ayutthaya. In Lanna, as a dance.
The Thai-language history begins the craft with jerng, the northern martial dance, and the oldest written muay is in a Lanna law of 1296, filed under quarrels.
History and geographyBefore the bell
Kru Tony Moore · CC BY-SA 4.0Four minutes of not fighting
The headband belongs to the gym, the dance belongs to the fighter, and the band has already started.
The ceremony