Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

What an interesting artistic coincidence, I just put up my own film short sharing very similar aesthetics a few weeks after you. I was inspired by watching the film Blancanieves I think, wanting those very inky blacks. Very cool that you were thinking along the same vibe: Our podcast on the film: If Interested, for a while now I've been pretty obsessed with bringing the deep blacks of Film Noir to Muay Thai, writing about that here:

I do doubt that the King was referencing Muay Thai in any way, from what you describe. But there is a long tradition of Thai Royalty being the protector and developer of Muay Thai. Muay Thai is a very important part of Thai National identity. You can read up on the history of Thai Nationalism in this excellent article: https://8limbsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Muay-Thai-Inventing-Tradition-for-a-National-Symbol-Peter-Vail.pdf

Thank you for recognizing this. It's one of the hardest parts, especially for someone who has been inherently shy much of her life. We've felt from the very beginning an obligation to put it out there, to share the knowledge and the perspective, but it's been a balancing act, because at the same time Sylvie is developing to become a fighter, a great fighter, so the social web of relations isn't always helpful in that. We've just tried to be very nose-to-the-grindstone on this, and keep putting out more high quality thought, documentation, art. Everything...

I know it may be hard to believe because of the way people in the west treat film and video, but its actually a very small part of what is going on. Looking at her fights again, at the very best, might give her confidence that certain work she is putting in is paying off a bit, but 99% of what she is doing with her fight commentary is just reliving the event for the benefit of others. She's really just trying to relay everything that mattered. Any kind of advice from video from others is pretty minor, and very often advice from the outside can be misplaced, because they just don't understand (often) how Sylvie has to fight to win, given the circumstances of how her opponents fight her. Female Thai fighters don't fight like male stadium fighters, so much of the outside advice, if from a particular fight video, is based on classic fighting tendencies which are much harder to apply in the female fight scene. I would say the fight video experiences are way less than .1% of a benefit. On the other hand, her commentary done on all her Muay Thai Library film sessions is very helpful. It allows her to isolate more objectively, the lessons and important bits, and incorporate them in her training. For instance just looking at her bag work with Wangchannoi, objectively, got her to really radically change how she did bagwork recently. This is actually changing in real time in Thai culture, but there is a very long stigma of the living scene of Muay Thai in Thailand as low-class, dirty, wrong-side-of-the-tracks. Middle class families would enroll their kids in TKD classes, because it isn't shirtless, and they have nice clean white uniforms, for instance. But in the last 5 years or so gyms, and Muay Thai gyms, have been branding themselves much more to the upper classes in cities, as a way to stay fit for women, so the classic stigma is shifting. It also has to be said that while Muay Thai has had a class stigma, it also, ideologically, has been very important for Thai Nationalism and identity. So Thai victories, especially vs foreigners, is much esteemed and glorified. Perhaps the same thing could be seen, in parallel, with western boxing, which had a history of lower-class and disreputable participation, but boxing victories were celebrated at a very high level. There is a very strong moralistic slant against gamblers and gambling. Gambling is largely illegal throughout the country, for moral reasons. And in Thailand it is only lawful at specific stadia. That being said, the country is quite superstitious and the government lottery (and various black market lotteries) is a huge phenomena. But Muay Thai does suffer socially from its gambling stigma. We've covered this in detail in the Muay Thai Bones podcasts, I think. Clinch has recovered in the sport, but it's place in the sport is less secure than what might be widely thought. I'm not really sure how much COVID will effect Muay Thai, a large part of that is how many surges of infection take place, and how effective the vaccine is. Muay Thai in Thailand finds itself in a difficult position. Because it is socially disreputable to some degree, and the first COVID cluster in Thailand came around Lumpinee (the 2nd one now, notably, has oriented now around an illegal casino), Muay Thai has to be super conservative in relation to COVID. It has an uphill PR problem. The reason why this is so complex is that Thailand's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, so while Thailand has had an amazingly good COVID safety record, one of the best in the world, there is great pressure to open up to tourists soon, faster than say a tourism competitor like Vietnam. Muay Thai in Bangkok and elsewhere is linked to tourism, so there is some risk in how and when the country will open up, which could cause long term problems with Muay Thai if things go wrong.

I'm uncovering for myself, just tracing the line of contrast in Noir back through time, that German Expressionism in film (this I knew about), but also silent film whites play role in a Muay Noir aesthetic for me. This was really brought to bare in the film Blancanieves (Snow White), which is a 2012 homage to the silent films of Europe. It's just a beautiful film, and for me tickles so much of what Noir also carries. Here are a series of still caps I took from the film to give you an idea of what I see: A Muay Noir aesthetic can draw on the morality tale tradition of German Expressionism, which you find in this film, and which the Noir Universe also absorbed.

Wow, incredible Jim!

Jesus. Not normal.

I'll try to answer this is some detail, there are some great questions in there. I don't believe there is a woman alive who has fought as much as Sylvie has, Thai or non-Thai, in any combat sport. The primary reason we took the approach of fighting so much is that Sylvie was starting later in life, so we took the "Thai way" of how young fighters grew in the sport. In Thailand when you are young you learn BY fighting, and you fight a lot. You fight every sort of opponent, and the quality of the matchups is governed, usually, by gambling interests. But, Thais do not continue fighting in this way. It's a growing process, but as soon as you start getting a name Thais tend to fight less often, in more controlled matchups, usually looking for other Thais that they can beat (forcing favorable matchups for themselves, winning beats) or names they can beat to build their reputation. For males this means the Bangkok Stadium circuit, for females it means the side-bet circuit. To keep fighting and fighting and fighting, as Sylvie does, as a Thai would mean not having the leverage to force favorable matchups, and building your "nobody can beat me" reputation. As to the number of fights that Sylvie's opponents typically have, this varies of course, she's fought over 150 opponents. Some have fight numbers in the 100s or 200s (famous World Champion opponents like Thanonchanok or Loma), most probably have fight totals around 75 or so. There are a lot of cliché ideas about Thai fighters that float about, that they are impoverished, fight for rice, or are forced into fighting in some ways. Yes, there are examples, but a lot of the pictures of Thai fighters out there are very broad brush, and are part of a exoticism of Thailand from the West. Not all Thai fighters (and I'll guess that we can just talk about female Thai fighters) start at a very early age. Some may start in their early teens. Not all are from poor family, many come from what we may call urbran middle class families, some even from more upperclass families (though there can be stigma with the sport). As to training regimes, I don't think there is a fighter in the world, male or female, Western or Thai, who trains like Sylvie. She's on her own path, reaching for something that isn't really in the sport. Thai female opponents are varied. Some may have started from a very young age and achieved fight brilliance and even World Championship status by the time they are 15, but then begin to coast because they have superior skills, accolades, and train rather modestly, especially when compared to their western opponents - I think someone like Thanonchanok is like that. Fighting at a World class level for 7 years or so, many Thai female fighters become slack, just when they are hitting their physical prime. There is no ascending "fight scene" of great opponents and also financial incentive to keep them pushing their development hard. Just another belt to win once in a while. Then there are a whole host of female Thai fighters who fight out of Sports Schools. They train together, while also going to school, fight each other in female fight scenes, compete for stadium belts, try to get on televised higher paying shows, fight for World titles, etc. Their training seems to be regular, but not super high level. They are generally highly skilled, usually quite experienced fighters (sometimes fighting as much as once a week) in reasonably athletic shape, trying to improve themselves. They can be from more middle class families. And then there are fighters who are younger but are rising stars that come out of the side-bet scene. They are super skilled, are beating all the top fighters of the province they are from, usually have around 70 fights or so. Often these fighters are in very good physical shape because they are prize fighters, and they may be fighting at the peak of their career. Very few of Sylvie's opponents (as far as we can understand) are "economically depending on their prize money" in the more stereotypical sense of how that is imagined. They largely are fighting for their name, their pride, their position in the scene, many with hopes for dreams like getting on the National Team, which can be quite lucrative. There is such variety of opponent, it's hard to generalize, but that's the sense we get. Some treat it as a vocation, or a potential vocation, but there is such a lack of a progressive female fight scene, in the sense males have, the way forward is unsure. Something that is also pretty unique in Sylvie's opponents is that 95% of them Sylvie doesn't even pick. We just find dependable promotions that will be a source for a volume of fights, and don't even give much voice (or even thought) about whatever opponent they choose for her. Most fighter handlers are angling for advantages, and reasonably so - part of the fight game is gaining the leverage and authority to shape matchups -, but Sylvie just goes with whatever the promoter chooses. We ask: What is the weight, and what is her name (just to see if she's fought her before), and that is about it. Promoters really like Sylvie for this reason, she's a very low friction fighter, willing to take disadvantages. Sylvie is something of a Unicorn of a fighter in Thailand. Many of the things she's become known for are just almost bizarre to Thais. She fights all over the country, in a variety of venues and promotions, whereas most fighters try to lock into lucrative single promotional, or powerful handles. Whereas most top Thai fighters quibble about 1 or 2 kg differences, Sylvie regularly takes on huge weight advantages even versus the best female Thai fighters in the country. She'll give up 5 kg, 7 kg to a literal World Champion. This just does not compute to Thais. And she wins (not always, but often). She got on the scale for a side bet fight, maybe a year ago, vs someone who is now the hottest Thai female fighter in Thailand, and was 5 kg lighter (after her opponent had cut), and their eyes practically fell out of their head. It's just not how it is done. Sylvie lost that fight, we are seeking a rematch, but it shows just out outside the lines Sylvie fights. Everyone knows Sylvie's fighting style. In stadia where she has fought a lot, like Thapae Stadium in Chiang Mai, all the gamblers know what she's going to do. They match up huge weight disadvantages, and honestly the refs there break the clinch very quickly on her to make the match as exciting as possible, with both opponents having a chance. As to being feared, its really hard to know. She fights up so often, and on Thai television, it must create an aura. After Sylvie recently fought and beat a top fighter in the South (one of the very few she's fought her own weight), her opponent sat with her in the audience for a while, and told her nobody can beat her in the South. I pretty much know for sure that the present day WBC #1 ranked and WPMF World Champion near Sylvie's weight (a Thai) would never fight Sylvie, and probably for good reason. But, Thais also love coming after fighters with big reputations too, so there are always opponents. I think her reputation is that nobody at her weight in Thailand could beat her, but if fighting up 2 or 3 weight classes would be quite a scrap. Oh, Jomkwan was definitely ok. She's one of the best (underrated) fighters in the world. She was walking around a few minutes later, and was cornering for a teammate. Nong Benz was ok too. Almost all of Sylvie's T/KO s are knee knockouts, which means either a liver shot or just taking someone's breath away. These aren't particularly damaging, but they can shut you down for a few minutes. The rate of her knockouts is pretty unusual in Thailand where points usually decide fights, especially given how much weight she gives up.

Recording #37.mp4 One of the most compelling influences for Muay Thai photography can come from cinema. Instead of the "sports reporter" history of fight photography, I believe we should draw on the much wider language of cinematic expression. It's roots lie very deep in our subconscious, and evocations of light and color languages open up worlds of the possible when trying to grasp not only a sport, but a culture. That is one reason why I've been studying the films (and thinking) of cinematographer Roger Deakins. His Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, No Country for Old Men have a lot to teach and share. What is cool is that Roger Deakins has a podcast with his wife James, so it isn't just on the level of images that one can dialogue with him. One of the things that he makes clear is that he himself is inspired by still photographers, and one in particular he keeps returning to...Alex Webb. Above his a collection of his images from The Suffering of Light. Deakins is clearly taken by what he imagines is the highly constructed nature of Alex Webb's frames. So much tension, juxtaposition, and layering. You can see all of it above, frames within frames, staggering of space. This is what was thinking of when I advocated for wide-lens photography for Muay Thai, the idea of spatial, situational inclusion, instead of just the "hero frame", as Brad Pitt calls it. What Alex invites is the staggering of space, so that the eye pinballs through the frame, forward and back. Many of his photos are beautifully jagged. What is kind of interesting is how Deakins mis-imagines Webb's process, something he has thought long and hard about in his own artist fantasy. He seemed to picture Webb being very precise, kind of constructing the frame in advance, and then squeezing off a few precious photos, whereas Webb insists that he shoots prodigiously, lots and lots of frames, and that he only senses the possibility of the shot. It isn't until he looks later at what he has does he fully know if he got it. This is just a very interesting juxtaposition of influences. Deakins (cinematographically) looks at the finished project of Webb's (still photography) process, inspired by that perfect balance of tension, space and color, and then (I imagine) goes about constructing his own shots, in a much more controlled way. This seems like the inverse relationship between still photography (street) and cinematography. Webb using the frame to hunt, using his developed instincts, where as Deakins builds the frame in his mind, and then duplicates it in (dynamic) diaoramic practice. You can listen to their discussion here: https://www.rogerdeakins.com/team-deakins-podcast/episode-30-alex-webb-stills-photographer/

I really like this photo treatment of photographer Walt Zink. One of the challenges of selective color is connecting the color aesthetically to the rest of the lighting of the photo. A lot of time for me it can be jarring, taking me out of the photo, but in photos like these there is a real community of color that not only creates focus, but also aura. You get the continuity of tone, the feeling of adornment, that Old School atmosphere of parchment maybe. Very cool.

There is great variability in this, but this answer by Tyler on a related thread is the best I've seen on the Internet, from someone who lived on budget for some time:

I do not intend this to become a dialogue between Thailand's Nak Muay realities and the social construction of the Japanese Samurai, but this photograph I took comes to mind. It is of arguably the greatest Muay Thai Fighter in Thai history, Chamuakphet (at least in the top 5) seated with dignity in the corner of a Kaimuay ring. I titled it Le Samourai, after Melville's assassin film. You can see a better quality of the print here: Le Samourai The photograph composes its own argument perhaps. But Chamuakphet is a profound example. Having one of the most extraordinary Thai stadium careers ever, one in which he was dominant even when older, stacking up a record 9 stadium championships, he moved to Japan and has been training fighters over there for more than a decade I believe. Here is is visiting Thailand. But I saw in him, imagined in him, that Japanese - Samurai - posture. An actual legendary Thai fighter who then has positioned his body within the social regimes of Japanese society. Maybe the closest we come to a "real" (contemporary) samurai, at least in a certain fighting sports sense.

Of course, there is a very obvious parallel here: the fighter as Martial Artist. That entire trope, with its complicated history - for instance how the Japanese concept of Budo was forwarded by western influences and conceptualizations. This still leaves the very compelling question: What does it mean for a person to make of their life a Work of Art? What does it mean ethically? What does it mean Aesthetically? What does it mean in terms of efficacy in the fighting arts (sports) themselves? What is potent about Thailand's Muay Thai is that nobody is producing "Martial Artists" qua artists. We are much more in the realm of craft. Crafting fighters. The Western (or more properly globalized/captialist/modernist) image of the Martial Artist projects out like a fantasy sometimes, perhaps as an afterimage of its own soul: lost traditions, lost practices, lost "men". There is no doubt that the image of the Martial Artist has been calling out to us at least since Bruce Lee and Hong Kong cinema burst on the scene and changed the way that Asian men and traditions of the East are perceived. We have to grapple with how much of these fantasies are of our own projection, and how much they are real self-diagnoses of our real illnesses and disbalances, self proscribing, self creating, artistically reaching for a new and possible Us. Maybe the acme of this entire register of creation is in the extremes of the figure of the Samurai, imagined as the summit of both Artistic and Ethical being. Even if a fantasy of our creation, for the West, it is an creation with meaning, purpose and use.

This reflection is based on my reading of "Existing Not as a Subject But as a Work of Art" which outlines the way in which Deleuze (and Foucault) cut through the boundary Kant tried to establish between Ethics and Aesthetics, allowing definitive domains for how one should be, providing registers where differing regimes of discourse can vie. As is outlined in the essay Ethics is the Realm of Good and Bad, judgements governed by prudence, whereas Aesthetics is a very different space, one in which feelings, affectual attractors, trajectories of composition, govern. Is it Beautiful? Existing_Not_as_a_Subject_But_as_a_Work.pdf <<< download the essay PDF here, Chapter 8 This is an unspooling of the medieval (and Greek) trinity of True, Good & Beautiful, and it suffices to say that Deleuze and Foucault find an unnecessary schism in the blurring of these (likely contrived) boundaries, between the Good and the Beautiful. What the essay investigates is something along the lines of "Is it possible (or advisable) to live your life as a work of art?" The best parts of the essay are found in these caps here below, where it is outlined just what an Aesthetic (non-Subjectivized) life might be like: Above is set out the differing "individuations", Subject (Good vs Bad) vs Event (Beautiful vs not-Beautiful). Deleuze wants to trace out these different kinds of becomings, the way in which some people - or at least some experiences in phases - are like "events", sweeping across us, and much less like being a certain kind of person. The molarity of a person, a "subject" falls back into the judgements of Ethics. The examples of event-individuations then appeals to literature and the separation between Love (ethics) and Passion (Aesthetics), quoting at length: This is the very interesting part - just as the example seems to veer the furthest from the realities of a Nak Muay in the figure of Heathcliff. I'm going to take this on from the Western Nak Muay perspective to begin with, because there the door is open the widest. The project and ambition of a typical - but very committed - westerner who moves to Thailand, dives into the World of Muay Thai here (a pre-existing, extremely rich and varied sub-culture of fighting, which produces great meaning for the country) is rightly much better called a "passion" rather than a "love". Yes, some from the west come to Thailand to create a "subjectification", which is to say the Image or the Picture of being a "Fighter", a "Nak Muay", which is to say, something they can idealize and present to others as noble or virtuous. An "I'm such-and-such kind of person" project of creation. In this case this might be called a Love of Muay Thai. But most fighters - predominantly western men, but also western women (each having differing projects) come to Thailand out of a passion. How are we to define this? Taking Deleuze's lead, this would mean that they are seeking to create "event-type individuations", which are much more ephemeral (Time Fragile), and I would suggest, programmatic. In these projects there is in no real sense a Self, at least for the duration for the event individuation. The passion is lived through these repeated endeavors. To not lose the thread here - and I'm going a little slow on this, because there is a risk for being unclear - what happens when a person from the West comes to Thailand and takes the deep dive into Thailand's Muay Thai, is that they submit themselves to existing regimes that I would argue are already traditionally focused on Event Individuations. This is another way of saying that the Thai Kaimuay (gyms) which are houses which create Thai (stadium circuit) Nak Muay are creating Works of Art, or...people who live as Works of Art more than they do as Subjects. Another way into this - a slight detour - is that the preoccupation that the West has with the beauty of Thai technique (and beyond that, at a much deeper level, the Beauty of Individual fighting styles) is that that beauty is signaling to all of us that fighting is an Aesthetic endeavor, and that the Aesthetics that rule over scoring and "proper" technique (jangwah/timing/rhythm, emotional self-control, ruup/posture) are keys to the very nature of what Muay Thai is, not only to Thailand but to the rest of the world. As westerners engage with that beauty - and often try to mistakenly "hack" it mechanically - what they really are trying to do is reach an Aesthetic realm. To live one's life, at least in part, as a Work of Art. Backing up again, returning to the Kaimuay. The Kaimuay is the artisan's house where training regimes have been established to produce these works of art. These regimes are no different than the traditional regimes of metallurgy and sword making, for instance, involving the annealing processes of forging and sharpening a sword. They involve time-tested periods of heating and cooling, of shaping, folding and pounding. A good Kaimuay knows how to make good (Thai) swords, and sometimes a master sword. Why am I turning to the analogy of metallurgy? It's to bring forward the subjectless aspect of what is being done in a Thai Kaimuay. Yes, it is very true that Subjectification (Ethics) is a very important part of Kaimuay reality. The young Nak Muay has to slot his (her) person in a hierarchy which is quite rigid, and there does run an ethical parallel to the aesthetic work of a Kaimuay, but I would argue that it is not central to what is happening. Instead, largely, the subject is fixed, so that the metal can be worked on, so the metal can be transformed. Look again at the Deleuzian examples of what an event-type individuation is. These are transversing energies/intensifications. For a painter it can be the swath of blue paint that you just pulled across a canvas in oil. They are time bound and require regimes of practice. They require styles to embody them and guide them. Because they are trajectories, these styles and regimes are guardrails, directions, but they never are determinate. What I suggest is that largely what westerners are doing when they come to Thailand - either consciously or unconsciously - is submitting to Training regimes and Fighting regimes that are governed by the learned wisdom of the Kaimuay or kru/s. The 100 kicks at speed on the pads, burning to collapse, is an event-individuation. The 45th minute in clinch in the suffocating heat is an event-individuation, the Ram Muay before hundreds of onlookers is an event individuation. What makes these ephemera events not just indulgences or self-flagilations is that they hold within a regime, an aesethic which produce a "thing"...a Nak Muay. A style. A Work of Art. One of the most interesting elements of this is that the westerner is entering a house of craft - the Kaimuay - which in its long custom has learned to produce swords out of a particular type of metal. The young Thai boy (and there is much to write about the variances of this) is shaped and modeled into the Nak Muay art in this custom. The folds and bends, the reheatings and coolings, the sharpenings are founded on that metal. Those properties. An adult western man (or woman) has very different properties. It's of different "stuff". This isn't to say that the programs and regimes that work on in the common metallurgy of a Thai Kaimuay would not work on this metal, these metals, it is only to say that the traditions (ethnically, sociologically segmented) of swordmaking comes out of generations of practice on a certain material. And, it is unknown fully what the result is on other metals, other materials. Ultimately, it is an experiment. "Heat and fold me, like you heat and fold these other metals". Whether this comes out of the malaise of Western Subjectivation - the particular ills we suffer from in the West, a certain kind of mal-nurishment, deprived of the Aesthetic...perhaps, it is not known. And, if we take this perspective we cannot avoid the truth that the Westerner is taking on a Aesthetic project more or less consciously, that the Thai takes on much more systematically, as aspects that arise not so much from the person but the culture. This is another way of saying that Thailand and its Kaimuay traditions operate on a much more fundamental Aesthetic level. Not only Muay Thai, but many other aspects of Thai culture operate on a Aesthetic (event-individuation) plane. The Kaimuay tradition comes out of a much wider comprehension that also subsumes, or is subsumed by, Buddhism. And Buddhism perhaps provides a glimpse into the solution to a unsolveable puzzle that is posed at the end of the essay. Which is: How can one live one's life as a Work of Art (aesthetically, governed by the production of event-type individuations) and still live an Ethical life? Does not the pursuit of trajectories necessarily transgress the ethical Self? This is complex, layered question, full of historical examples of the antagonism between the Ethical and the Aesthetic. But, the Nak Muay, as meager a personage as she/he is, does offer a compelling compass heading, in the shadow of Buddhism. Buddhistic practice - at least much of its meditation and daily expression - is quite event-individuation producing. It is in many ways a regime of aesthetics in which - even logically - the Subject is barred, but it is also fundamentally an ethical practice. The aesthetics are ethically driven, or...the perceived ethics of the event-experiences is much of what drives the practice. It is true that much that is in Thailand Muay Thai, and the Nak Muay in it, is far from the ethical, but at bottom, in the art itself, the kind of flourishing fighter who beautifully conducts her/himself under intense duress, the balance - both psychological and physical, the grace and timing, the customs and traditions, are evoking an acme of Beauty that possesses its own ethics, embedded in its forms. The Nak Muay, forged as she/he is, is a sword, aimfully a beautiful sword. And a sword holds its own ethics, I would suggest. I also believe that the dichotomy that the essay sets up, between the event and the subject is a somewhat false one. Nobody - not even the greatest yogi - lives in an Event-Individuation world. Forever there is a dialogue (we can call it) between the Subject and Event worlds. One is always passing between the Good/Bad vs Beautiful/Ugly registers. They form the warp and weft of the weave of us. Knowledgeably though, if we can grasp that the intentions of a westerner coming to Thailand to "become a fighter" are aesthetic ones we might be able to train our eyes on the right things. Focus yourself on the productions of events. Let the Subject go. Submit to traditional regimes that will and can transform you. Find the beauty of your Muay Thai not in your plans or intentions, but in the development of senses, of sensibilities, of ventures, of flights.

Not fight photography, but Martina Hoogland Ivanow's Speedway offers keyholes for us was we struggle to get away from "get the strike!" photography - which, if we are honest about it, it just sensing the fight, having a decent lens, and machine-gunning the shutter. It's just gorgeous, see the series here: Martina Hoogland Ivanow's Speedway. A few screen caps below: Here we instructively have a subject which one would think would involve capturing "Speed" - just as we are challenged to capture the "fight", but instead are presented with lunar reality, the superb isolation, the "way of life" even of the track racer, depicted in so many textures, grits, "near monochrome". It is radient. I came upon this in this article on cinematography, telling of the inspiration for the film Arrival: As a sidenote, I stumbled upon this reference studying cinematographers to inform my photography, where here the cinematography is inspired by the photography. A swimming dialectic. I'm truly moved by what I see in film, it makes me want to press my shutter. The first photo in the series, the suited up portrait, is just amazing. Damn. That steely palette, the solitary oranges that they took for Arrival. In this, I think we can learn - open our eyes really - to all the tools we can use to bring to bear on what fighting IS. It's not strikes landing. In fact, it's probably much more strikes missing, than it is strikes landing. Posted here as reference, and for discussion.

Here is Sylvie's article on how to get more out of padwork: https://8limbsus.com/muay-thai-thailand/secret-great-muay-thai-padwork-thailand

Another photo from our visit to the cave temple of Wat Khao Aor, showing the Tiger Ruesi that gave birth to this thought thread:

I can't see the videos for some reason. I'm on Firefox, maybe it's some kind of block in my browser.

Here is an image collection of a few Tiger Ruesi figures I've seen over the years, giving some aesthetic contexts for the Wat Khao Aor figure:

What does this mean for the role of rage and/or ferocity in Muay Thai, especially in the Muay Thai of Thailand? Because the Nak Muay himself/herself occupies a hybrid place in the culture, synthesizing holy and (possibly) unholy aspects of the human condition, Thailand's Muay Thai has a special offering to the Western fighter, and even viewer, who is drawn to fighting as an expression of aggression, anger, pride, frustration, rage, either as they occur in themselves or in society. When you train in Thailand you'll hear the Jai yen yen admonition, "Have a cool heart", which can work as a counterbalance to all the hot-hearted drive to the need to fight, or enjoy fights. But Thailand's Muay Thai is not just Jai yen yen. It rather creates a vehicle for sudden violence, even ferocious violence, which can erupt in only a flash, or a wave. Or, it can pulse in a Muay Khao derning. The Buddhistic take on anger and reactive passions certainly about controlling oneself, and ultimately one's mind. But the Tiger Ruesi figure gives us something more. A kind of magical balance where the two sit in repose with each other. The surging Tiger terror lays there in the figure, pulling to mind things like the original meaning of the holy idea of "awe" as it relates to "awful". The full vitality of the Tiger, all of his thymotic real power, lays almost in reserve, perhaps. If you take this meaning and look at the incredible Muay of the Yodmuay of the Golden Age, I believe you can see this simmering vitality on almost all the great fighters, whether it is Samart the Tiger who almost never has to get up from his rest in the shade, or Dieselnoi who stalks, counters and then threshes his opponent savagely, or Karuhat who silkily moves from rope to rope, and then strikes a mortal blow, decisively turning the fight. At the highest levels this seems to be the art of Muay Thai, and as we look at the yodmuay of the past we can see the infinite variety of the ways that Tiger Energy has been alchemized into personality and style. As a western fighter coming to Thailand this is what, perhaps, the art and training has to offer. A more nuanced and pronounced way to express your thymotic energies. It is not just "Jai yen yen", it is Jai yen yen so that the Tiger can come out beautifully, expressively, in control of itself, striding and in full glory. At least that is what it seems like to me, come from the years I've spent in gyms all over Thailand, and from being in the presence of so many past great fighters. They all are Tigers.

Just as a point of context, this is an Internet story of how the Tiger Ruesi got his Tiger head. I suspect there is much diverse lore about these figures, and I'd imagine that this is not a definitive story. I've seen other tales. This one was found here:

It is worth noting that the Nak Muay in Thailand existed positioned in a kind of Tiger Ruesi place. He (she) embodies characteristics of both the monk, and the Nakleng (gangster). The Nak Muay is a kind of were-hybrid figure, in terms of powers and expressed affects. He (she) is both holy and unholy, in the art and violence of Muay Thai: The above graphic is from the article Thai Masculinity: Positioning Nak Muay Between Monkhood and Nak Leng – Peter Vail which examines academic Peter Vail's argument that Nak Muay are a kind of hybrid figure in Thailand. You can read the original excerpt of his dissertation here: ad hoc title: Thai Masculinity: Positioning Nakmuay Between Monkhood and Nakleng PDF In this comparison Peter Vail draws on the Tiger, but in a differing way. He argues that in the way that forest monks used spending a night in a Tiger-prawled forest, creating a calmness before that potential ferocity, that is facing Tiger Energy to produce thudong, in this way Nak Muay are like them. In a certain regard one might say that facing the Tiger Energy before you, and within you, and creating a synthesis, is the spiritual (affective) challenge of the Muay Thai fighter in Thailand. The Tiger Ruesi epitomizes and heightens just what the Nak Muay is.

Sylvie and I talk about the raw difficulty in processing "Tiger Energy" as a fighter in our Muay Thai Bones podcast episode 18. This link jumps to the section:

Now, the history of high level Muay Thai is not filled with "Tiger Energy" fighters. In fact we've filmed with almost a 100 legends and ex-fighters and only come upon it in a few times. Notably, when in the ring with Sagat Petchyindee, you can just feel it emanate off of him. You can see it in this slow motion we took of his shadow: (link divergence: You can see it more in particular in the Muay Thai Library sessions we filmed with him: #69 Sagat Petchyindee 3 - Muay Maat Tigers & Snakes (67 min) watch it here , #60 Sagat Petchindee Session 2 - All the Strikes Tuned and Dangerous (101 min) watch it here , #38 Sagat Petchyindee (part 2) - Maximum Damage (61 min) watch it here , #26 Sagat Petchyindee - Explosive Power (57 min) watch it here ) This is to say, the higher level affect dynamics of Thailand's traditional Muay Thai is not fundamentally a synthesis of Tiger Energy, per se, but Tiger Energy does propose a kind of extreme (thymotic) energy what indeed needs to be given a vehicle of artful expression. And, at least to my eyes, the figure of the Tiger Ruesi holy man, brings this alchemy of thymotic anger and rage into close view. In the west we have synthetic/dichotomous figures which talk to that problematic. The Minotaur of Ancient Greece The Gothic Werewolf Contemporary Hulk It is as if Western Civilization has been trying to process this rage/pride/thymos synthesis for 2,500 years. That is what make the art and tradition of Muay Thai so very interesting to the western problematic. And, suggestively, the Thai Buddhistic tradition of magical synthesis, which aim to generate this resolution at the highest level. In the larger scope, it is the way in which Thailand's Muay Thai processes and redirects typified western affects of rage and anger (and the host of emotions expressed by aggro-fighting in western oriented promotions) into an art form of spatial and personal control, maintaining their edge and sharpness, but held more close to the vest, honed liked a Japanese sword...perhaps, that proves the value of Thailand's historical Muay Thai, a martial combat sport that has been closely braided to long standing principles of Buddhism. That a Tiger Ruesi can exist as an acme holy figure in Thailand's Buddhism points the way toward the resolutions and expressions of ferocity by the Nak Muay that make Thailand's Muay Thai like no other fighting art.

On our visit to Wat Khao Aor in Phatthalung, a 900 year old temple that was built around a sacred cave that likely featured worship for a much longer time. There are stories about the elephant-like shapes in the stone of the cave walls for instance. In that cave now are a host of spiritual figures/statuary as the cave has been a place of organized ceremonial retreat, mediation & merit-making for centuries. Among these figures is a Tiger Ruesi, something that has long captured my imagination, especially as I try to figure out the affective/spiritual path of the Nakmuay in Thailand, the particular way in which Muay Thai mitigates, translates, hones & even amplifies violence, alchemizing it into a artform, and a possibly a minor practice of transcendence. The Tiger Ruesi - and there are many differing tales, and likely differing Ruesi with a Tiger head, is a spiritual (magical) hermit who advanced in his (dark?) arts so thoroughly his head transformed into one of a tiger. One such tale of this event involved dualing Ruesi testing their magic upon each other, but whatever the stories, the figure itself expresses the incredible harmony/dichotomy of a holy man holding both the ferocity of a Tiger's Truth (energy), and the Buddhist epitome of equanimity. He, like the figure itself, feels like a living contradiction...or, a reconciliation of opposites. Below are two photos I took of the figure: It's the second of these photos that I'm really interested in, but the first captures some of that flaming, gold-encrusted (there is leaf on his fangs, etc), eruptive energy in the Tiger. The genuine terror of what a Tiger is. I think for us in the West we have domesticated the Tiger in our minds, a sleek, sexy, dynamic beautiful energy, but that is because we are not connected, historically, to environments where if you walked out alone into the forest or the jungle you might not come back, due to a Tiger. The Tiger is perhaps close to the image we have had of a Great White Shark, which might mercilessly snatch you while swimming, or maybe the uncompromising hunt energy of a wolf. That is the energy that has become magical. The synthesis/tension of the Tiger Ruesi proposes a Thymotic energy resolution. (link divergence: Thymos is this. How Homer treated Thymos. And some of thymos is this. Thymotics and anger. But this is maybe the best treatment of what Thymos is). It is the surging dignity/pride/rage that comes from what feels like an animal core. The Tiger Ruesi, especially this one, seems to have come to hold in one hand both the terrifying ferocity of thymotic rage and Buddhistic repose...like a carefully balanced flame that burns calmly and unwavering in a breezeless room. Most Tiger Ruesi figures show him much more in repose. But this figure is practically erupting with the energy in his face. But...what is very cool is his up-turned clawed palm, an aspect of his meditative posture. This small detail of the statue is just enormous. The claws, the weapons and expressions of his seemingly very nature, are open and relaxed. Anyone who has spread the claws of a cat's paw knows the natural tension that closes them back up. The figure must be so relaxed to have his clawed palm upon up so much. And that one thumb claw that really hangs down drives home the meaning. It's truly spectacular, the poles of the spectrum of experience.