  muay boran (, , , lit. "ancient boxing") is an umbrella term for the unarmed martial arts of thailand prior to the introduction of modern equipment and rules in the 1930s. it is thus the direct ancestor of modern muay thai. muay boran is not a single style but acts as an umbrella term for all traditional siamese (thai) styles of martial arts, which are muay chaiya,muay korat,muay tasao,muay jerng and etc.. these ancient styles have their own unique guards, stance and striking techniques... whereas muay thai is often called the "science of eight limbs", muay boran is said to make use of nawa awut which means "nine weapons", adding headbutts as ninth offensive in addition to the "eight limbs" of hands, legs, elbows and knees used in muay thai. ==history and folklore== thumb|hit by knee in the ancient empire of siam "thailand", each region had their own "regional unique style" of guard,stance, foot work and striking techniques, be the "muay jerng" of the north, "muay korat" of the northeast, "muay chaiya"of the south and etc. their uniquely different ways of guards, stance ,foot works, striking techniques and hand wrap(kard chuakà¸à¸²à¸à¹à¸à¸·à¸­à¸) clearly represent their own unique regional style. for example muay chaiya had low stances which always bend their knees and wrap their hands to their wrist, whereas muay korat originally used straighten legs stance and wrap their hand to elbow,due to their different ways to delivered and blocked strikes.these top notch fighters from every region of siam were gathered to fight, later on their styles started to merge and blend together in the rattanakosin era. which their empty-handed fighting system was variously referred to as pahuyuth (from the sanskrit bahuyuddha meaning unarmed combat), dhoi muay "à¸à¹à¸­à¸¢ à¸¡à¸§à¸¢" the teaching of muay was kept up largely by buddhist monks who in former times also served as the community's educators. as well as continuing to function as a practical fighting technique for use in actual unarmed warfare, muay was also a combat sport in which the opponents fought in front of spectators who went to watch for entertainment. these contests wer
Thai_martial_arts