With Swords And Stunts, Thai Youth Embrace Ancient Martial Art

Thon Buri, Thailand, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jul, 2019 ) :Armed with a wooden knife and shield, a teenage girl fends off four sword-wielding boys with high-flying kicks in an action-packed homage to Thailand's neglected swordfighting tradition.

The fighters are part of a growing group of students at a school on Bangkok's outskirts mastering "Krabi Krabong," a martial art used in centuries-old warfare between rival kingdoms.

"It is a fighting technique used in a bygone era," 16-year-old Nantakarn Duangthongyu told AFP after her "4 vs 1" drill at Thonburee Woratapeepalarak School.

"We add new tricks and routines to make it more exciting." Soldiers used to deploy the elegant Krabi Krabong, meaning "sword staff", in hand-to-hand frontline combat or from the back of war elephants.

But as guns replaced swords, Krabi Krabong was reduced to a remnant of Thailand's medieval past.

Experts preserved the deadly skill by turning it into an art form and practitioners now duel with mock weapons in contests or for entertainment.

But it has failed to catch fire unlike Thailand's better known martial art of Muay Thai kickboxing despite campaigns to teach it in public schools.

The lack of experienced trainers and the complexity of managing an array of weaponry while engaging in hand-to-hand sparring makes it "a difficult art form", school coach Phatcharaphon Banditketmala told AFP.

"But it offers the fighters... a more 'ultimate' fighting (experience) than Muay Thai," he said.