history of muay thai

Muay Thai is considered by many to be the national sport of Thailand. It came be traced back for approximately 3,000 years and formed the basis of Thai military unarmed combat training.. Muay Thai is a full contact martial art that uses the body's natural weapons for defense i.e.:- Boxing, Elbows, Knees and Legs for kicking.

Old manuscripts list 8 basic tools of Thai Boxing: knees, fists, elbows and legs. Similar but less known martial arts are practiced in other Indochina countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Burma. The history of Thai Boxing is bound up with the migrations of the Thai tribe (meaning "free") in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries from Juang-XI, Sichuan and Hubei provinces in the south of China, into what is known today as Thailand. many people migrated in the 13th century because of the Mongol invasion  from the north. Because of this some sources believe that Thai Boxing has its origin in Chinese Boxing (Kung Fu), but that it has changed considerably. Other sources believe that the art originated during the period of constant fights between the Thai Kingdom and Burma, Khmer and Cham (Vietnam) states. This hypothesis is quite likely as the need for martial arts was greatest during that time.