Lethwei/lethawae (Burmese “boxing”) shares many characteristics
with Muay Thai(Thailand). As in Muay Thai, kicks, including knees, are
used along with hand and elbow strikes. Unlike Muay Thai, however, com-
petitors fight without gloves, using only hand wraps as protection for the
fists; head-butts and grappling are permitted. A sport form of the system
has existed since at least the eighteenth century. Currently there are
matches divided into four rounds, judges, rankings from youth to profes-
sional grades, and even a national governing body. Matches traditionally
have been associated with festivals and held in sandpits. Musical accom-
paniment is sometimes used; in fact, in the past at least, the Shan dance
called Lai Ka (fight dance, or defense-offense) was a form of training for
bare-knuckle fighting. According to Faubion Bowers the assumption is that
dancing and fighting are so closely related that ability in one entails ability
in the other. Boxing was popular among the hill tribes: the Kachin, Karen,
Shan, and Wa.
Rather than existing as a separate art, Burmese wrestling, called na-
ban(grappling), is integrated into other combatives. Grappling is most de-
veloped among the Chin and Kachin tribes, who are Himalayan in origin,
and is said to have been derived from Indian wrestling rather than from
Chinese grappling.
Southeast Asia 545An advertisement for Burmese boxing found in Sagaing, Myanmar (Burma), in November 1996 illustrates the revival
of interest in traditional martial arts. (Michael Freeman/Corbis)