Muay Chaiya
มวยไชยาThe southern Thai branch of muay boran. It is known for a very tight guard in which the body forms a closed shape; it fights from defence and counters.
Quick Facts
ThailandCharacter & 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.
Catalogs & Databases for Muay Chaiya
About Muay Chaiya
Muay Chaiya is the regional form of old Thai boxing from the Chaiya district in Surat Thani province in southern Thailand. What separates it from the other branches of muay boran is above all the guard. Where elsewhere the hands are held more loosely, Chaiya uses a very tight, high guard in which the elbows and forearms cover the trunk and the head so that the body forms a closed shape. Practitioners themselves compare it to a durian: whoever touches you hurts himself. The tactics follow from that. Chaiya does not open with an attack but lets the opponent come, absorbs his attack in the guard or leads it aside, and only then answers with a sequence of techniques called luk mai. Elbow and knee strikes are delivered short, the kicks are lower, and the shin is often used as a shield. Tradition tells of the origin through a monk called Phor Than Ma, who settled in Chaiya and began to teach fighting alongside Buddhism. The art was taken from him by the local governor Cha Sriyaphai, who had his soldiers and his own sons train it. The youngest of them, Khet Sriyaphai, became in the first half of the twentieth century the best-known holder of the style and is the main reason Chaiya has survived. Alongside Chaiya, the regional styles usually named are Korat, with its emphasis on the power of the fist, Lopburi on fighting intelligence, and Tha Sao on speed. The founder entry in the catalogue is a school name, not a person's name.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.