Xpat Adventures: Let Wei, The Most Brutal Form Of Combat, Is Back!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Let Wei, The Most Brutal Form Of Combat, Is Back!

Let Wei, also known as Burmese boxing or Myanma traditional boxing, is a violent martial art recently "discovered" by muay thai fanatics. Sharing a common past with muay boran and pradal serey, Let Wei was practiced by Burmese warriors since the 12th century but not much was known about it until a few years ago. Myanmar's past fifty years of self-seclusion kept this ancient native form of combat hidden away from the attention of martial arts practitioners. It evolved from battlefields to matches held in round sand pits during temples' fairs or important events patronized by Burmese kings, similarly to those organized in old Siam.

Every fight used to be "to the end", with no time limit, often ending with one winner and an unconscious loser. Boxers were specifically trained to endure pain and to keep on attacking even after being repeatedly knocked down and revived during the match. Head-butts, gouging and biting were also allowed. Therefore, many fights resulted in the death of one contender.

Let Wei, also known as Burmese boxing or Myanma traditional boxing, is a violent martial art recently "discovered" by muay thai fanatics. Sharing a common past with muay boran and praadal serey, Let Wei was practiced by Burmese warriors since the 12th century but not much was known about it until a few years ago. Myanmar's past fifty years of self-seclusion kept this ancient native form of combat hidden away from the attention of martial arts practitioners. It evolved from battlefields to matches held in round sand pits during temples' fairs or important events patronized by Burmese kings, similarly to those organized in old Siam. The famous Nai Kanomthom's story comes from those times. More recently (beginning of 20th century), rudimentary wooden rings were erected on temple or royal palace's grounds.

Every fight used to be "to the end", with no time limit, often ending with one winner and an unconscious loser. Boxers were specifically trained to endure pain and to keep on attacking even after being repeatedly knocked down and revived during the match. Head-butts, gouging and biting were also allowed. Therefore, many fights resulted in the death of one contender.

The Myanma Traditional Boxing, founded in 1996 with government support to promote Let Wei as a native sport, like the Thais did with muay thai, has defined the rules, the categories and the techniques allowed in the ring. Nowadays fights have 5 rounds of 3 minutes each on proper rings. Boxers still fight without gloves, using only cotton or elastic hand bands. Rules are now roughly similar to muay thai but still permit the use of head butts, wrestling and powerful take-downs. It is also allowed to strike an opponent when falling down (this used to be allowed in muay thai, too). Elbows and knees are the weapons of choice for all fighters, used with full force without any protection. I personally saw a few teeth fly out of a guy's mouth in Yangon after a powerful reverse-elbow hit him. Amazingly, the referee allowed him to continue the fight even though he was bleeding profusely, could barely stand and was visibly spaced-out by the blow.

From a spectator's point of view, Let Wei is fast, messy and brutally violent. Often both fighters attack simultaneously, hitting each other with powerful combinations of punches, elbows and kicks; the focus doesn't seem to be on defending themselves against the opponents' powerful blows but rather on attacking, all the time.

Let Wei fights are not "clean", in terms of techniques, but appear a lot more exciting than the majority of Lumpini's muay thai fights, which in comparison appear static, almost dull. In a Let Wei fight you'll see plenty of jump-flying knees, pull downs and all sort of tricks involving elbows. And all those vicious muay boran moves not allowed anymore in Thailand. Unfortunately, the fights can only be viewed in Yangon on weekends and during festivities upcountry. It's not easy to move around Myanmar (compared to Thailand) and such events are not tourist-oriented like in Bangkok.

A beautiful opportunity to see something very similar to Burmese boxing falls every year in April, during the Songkran festivities shared by all Buddhist countries in South East Asia. In the Thai town of Mae Sot, on a ring near the border, Burmese fighters meet their Siamese counterparts for a ancient-style (no gloves, old rules) boxing competition. The rivalry between the two old foes becomes alive every year and it's boosted by the great amount of betting going on around the ring. This event is recaptured in the Thai movie "Ong Bak" (2004), a Thai-made budget movie which generated great interest and demand for muay boran.

Even though there are well known Let Wei champions actively fighting in Myanmar, due to the brutality of certain techniques and Myanmar's government travel restrictions on its citizens, they aren't allow to compete neither in Thailand nor anywhere else outside their country.

Xpat Adventures

Let Wei, The Most Brutal Form Of Combat, Is Back!

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