NevaGiveUp
White Belt
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2014
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
I visited Cambodia last Spring 2014 and fell in love with the arts and culture. The ethnic Khmer people of the Khmer Empire (before Cambodia) in the 13th-15th Century had conquered most of Southeast Asia peninsula. They had a fighting system that provided its army with skilled martial arts. Who knows how it was like back then because written documentation was scattered. The Tai people from southern China are the ancestors of the "Thai" people of Thailand who had been pushed down by Mongols and found refuge in Khmer Empire. There people mixed race and shared cultures. Long story short, the Tai people became a larger group as they mixed with Khmers, many boundaries were drawn and pushed back and forth. The Tai adopted many Khmer ways and perhaps evolved from Khmer martial arts to what is now Muay Thai. Muay literally means "one" in Khmer. From Sanskrit it means "to bind together". When you bind something together it becomes a unit as to be "one". The Thais did not call it Muay Thai at first. It wasn't until the early 20th Century they added "Thai" after Muay to call it Muay Thai. Now we have conditioned the understanding that Muay Thai means "Thai Kickboxing" when it isn't the literal term. Muay for the Thai consisted of many region styles of fighting such as Muay Boran, Muay Chaya, Muay lopburi, etc. I have asked many Thai what "Muay" means and they have told me it means art such as the "Art of Thai Boxing". In Kun Khmer, "Kun" means literally respect and Kun Khmer together is translated into Respectful Khmer arts. Martial Arts was definitely an art for the Khmer people which helped their civilization in that time.
