Here, under the tutelage of former champions, the boys go to two schools, learning to read and write, but also to box. Training days are long and there is no day of rest. They also learn complex rituals. The day of a fight begins with a monk's blessing. Headbands and armbands are worn, with prayers tightly rolled inside.
Some fighters have their backs, arms and chests decorated with protective tattoos.
Spell are cast against opponents and to ward off evil spirits. Even the blows themselves carry the poetic yet violent whiff of the East, with names that translate as Bird Peeping Through the Nest, Rama Pulls the Arrow String, Mountain Overturns Earth, Break the Elephant's Neck and Monk Follower Sweep the Floor. The sport's appeal is rooted, in part, in the marriage of the grace and savagery, in the seeming contradiction between the Thai stereotype of gentleness and self-effacement and the reality of bone crushing bone, the blood that sometimes splatters ringside spectators. On top of a low cabinet in one corner, cutesy cupid figurines vie for space with a large bridal doll dressed in ruffled white organdy and bottles of beauty Care products. Hello kitty paraphernalia cram the shelves of the single wardrobe.