Bando
Burmese unarmed martial art, part of the umbrella term thaing, brought to the United States by Maung Gyi.
Quick Facts
MyanmarCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Bando
Bando is a Burmese martial art without weapons. The sources use the word in two ways. In the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World, Green gives bando once as a general name for Burmese unarmed arts with nine main styles by ethnic group, and elsewhere as a specific mixed system that arose in the Military Athletic Club in 1933. According to him, bando is the best-known component of the broader umbrella term thaing, which also includes the armed banshay, the boxing lethwei and the wrestling naban. English Wikipedia considers the use of the word bando for all Burmese martial arts a mistake. We have not found a single founder in the sources.
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According to Green, in 1933 under British supervision a unit of Gurkha riflemen tried to revive Burmese unarmed fighting. Nine Gurkha officers in the Military Athletic Club combined Burmese arts with Indian, Tibetan, Chinese and Nepalese ones, and the result was called bando. In 1946 the nine surviving members of the club founded the National Bando Association in Burma, whose first chairman was U Ba Than Gyi. Green states that the style of this association and its American branch has twelve animal forms, among them the boar, bull, cobra, python, tiger and scorpion, and elsewhere that the association commonly teaches nine forms. According to him, students learn that the safest course is to escape an attack by movement, stepping, evasion and rolling. According to both the American Bando Association and Wikipedia, Maung Gyi, the son of U Ba Than Gyi, brought bando to the United States. According to Green he founded and leads the American Bando Association, which combines traditional thaing with other Asian and Western systems. The association states that it was founded in 1967.
History
In the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World, Green describes thaing as a Burmese term for the native fighting systems of old Burma, which includes bando, banshay, lethwei, naban and other ethnic and tribal systems. According to him, bando is the best known of these components, and he loosely translates its name as the way of discipline. Elsewhere he writes that the word bando is commonly used for the unarmed art and that it has nine main styles tied to ethnic groups, among them Burmese, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Mon and Shan. According to Green, the decline of the Burmese martial arts began under British occupation, because the British banned training with swords and spears in order to fight guerrillas.
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According to Green, in 1933 under British supervision a unit of Gurkha riflemen tried to revive Burmese unarmed fighting, and nine Gurkha officers in the Military Athletic Club combined Burmese arts with Indian, Tibetan, Chinese and Nepalese ones. The result was called bando. English Wikipedia, citing Draeger, states that the club arose in Maymyo in northern Burma. In 1946, according to Green, the nine surviving members of the club founded the National Bando Association, and U Ba Than Gyi, who lived from 1883 to 1968, became its chairman. According to English Wikipedia, Maung Gyi introduced an adapted form of bando in Washington on 3 April 1960, and the American Bando Association was formally established on 15 June 1967 at Ohio University in Athens. The association itself writes that Maung Gyi founded it in 1967 in honour of the veterans of the China-Burma-India theater of the Second World War. Wikipedia adds that in 2009 the international bando association renamed itself the International Thaing Bando Association.
How it differs
The sources describe the relation of bando to the other Burmese arts differently. Green writes that bando, banshay, lethwei and naban are not independent disciplines but elements of thaing. The UNESCO ICM centre states that thaing includes unarmed bando and armed banshay and that lethwei developed into an independent art similar to muay thai. The Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times divides thaing into six types: besides bando and banshay also lethwei, naban and two kinds of wrestling, leppan and lepwei. The American Bando Association, by contrast, writes that it uses the word bando instead of thaing and that for its own purposes it joins bando and banshay into one discipline. The number of animal forms differs by school. Green gives twelve forms according to Draeger and Smith, nine commonly taught by the National Bando Association and the American association, and sixteen in the Kachin style, about which the article's author Phil Dunlap, himself its representative, writes that unlike the American style it consciously did not seek to adopt foreign elements. According to the Kachin account, lethwei is a combination of the bull and boar forms.
Technique
Green states that bando students learn that the safest strategy is to move through or around a threat, so the main tactics are steps, evasions, jumps aside and rolls. Defence consists of blocks, deflections and breaks, attack of strikes and holds. According to him, psychological resilience is built by a philosophy leading to acceptance of death and thus to freedom from fear. According to Green, the style of the National Bando Association and the American association has twelve animal forms: boar, bull, cobra, deer, eagle, monkey, rice bird, panther, python, scorpion, tiger and viper. The boar means courage, charge, and elbow and knee strikes, the cobra attack on the upper sensitive points and the viper on the lower. The forms combine strikes and holds and reportedly teach not only the physical but also the mental stance of the animal. English Wikipedia states that bando leaves the initiative to the opponent and relies on counteractions, so the practitioner first retreats and only then counterattacks.
Training
According to Green, bando builds physical resilience through hard conditioning, among other things strikes against lightly padded tree trunks and tearing through sacks of rice and stones. He considers controlled competition desirable because it allows techniques at full speed, but the traditional curriculum also contains offensive techniques banned in sport. English Wikipedia describes teaching in bando schools as follows: first stances and footwork, traditionally for several months, then blocks and deflections and finally offensive techniques. According to it, techniques are learned in forms called aka, solo and then with partners, and the last step is bouts similar to free sparring. The American Bando Association states that every student learns at least one subsystem from the areas of bare-handed fighting, with the staff and with the sword.
Ranks and progression
Belts are documented mainly in the American Bando Association. According to English Wikipedia, it uses coloured belts taken over from judo, usually white, green, brown and black, and the black belt exam can be taken after five years at the earliest. The association states that the staff is introduced at green belt level after about two years and bladed weapons, beginning with the kukri, at brown belt level after about three years. The newspaper New Straits Times reports that the master Rupa Thein of the Myanmar Thaing Federation received the title of master after ten belts. We have not found the grades of bando in Myanmar in the sources. Green describes for the Kachin style that the practitioner trains lethwei for about five years and only then devotes himself to a single animal form for the rest of his career.
Today
Green states that the nationwide student sports festivals in Myanmar regularly include thaing in both men's and women's categories, and he believes that this style derives from the mixed system of the National Bando Association. Outside Myanmar, according to Green, thaing is represented by two styles, the American association and the Kachin style, and through bando it influenced the martial arts in North America and in Europe. The UNESCO ICM centre writes that thaing is today practised mainly as bando and banshay. According to the newspaper New Straits Times, the Myanmar Thaing Federation arose in 1966, and its founder and secretary was U Chit Than. The UNESCO ICM centre states that in France the development of thaing was helped by Richard Morris, whom the federation recognised as European grandmaster.
Did you know
Among the founding members of the National Bando Association, Green lists representatives of various nations, among others an Indian, a Chinese, a Pakistani, a Burmese, a Gurkha and a Karen. The American Bando Association claims that Maung Gyi taught bando at American University and that it was then the only martial system from Southeast Asia officially taught at a major American university. According to the master Rupa Thein, quoted by the newspaper New Straits Times, thaing was banned under British rule because it was associated with patriots, and it became popular only after independence in 1948.
Styles & Branches
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bando and thaing?
Green and the UNESCO ICM centre describe thaing as an umbrella term for Burmese martial arts and bando as its unarmed component. The American Bando Association states that it uses the word bando instead of the term thaing.
How many animal forms does bando have?
Green gives twelve forms according to Draeger and Smith, nine that the American association commonly teaches, and sixteen in the Kachin style.
Who brought bando to the USA?
According to Green, Maung Gyi founded and leads the American Bando Association. English Wikipedia states that he introduced an adapted form of bando in Washington in 1960.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.