Krabi-Krabong
กระบี่กระบองThe Thai art of armed combat, which in tradition comes before empty-hand fighting. Its signature is the paired daab swords; training is accompanied by drums, as in muay thai.
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About Krabi-Krabong
Krabi-krabong is the Thai art of armed combat, and in the Thai tradition it comes before empty-hand fighting rather than after it. The name is descriptive: krabi is the sword, krabong the staff. The basic armoury is the single-handed daab sword, often carried as a pair (daab song mue), the long plong staff, a short baton, the spear and a small shield called loh. Paired swords are the art's signature — the two blades work independently, one covering while the other strikes in the same beat. Footwork is built on rhythm, which is why training is traditionally accompanied by drums and the pi chawa oboe, the same music heard at muay thai bouts. The art formed part of Siamese military training and its link to the court and to temple schools survived into the nineteenth century; the Buddhaisawan school is the institution most often named as its teaching centre. With the spread of firearms krabi-krabong lost its battlefield role and survived as training, ceremony and performance, including in Thai theatre and at royal occasions. Its relationship with muay thai is close: unarmed, krabi-krabong uses the same elbows and knees, which fits the fact that both grew out of the same military training.
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