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Reursi Dat Don
I am a student of Reursi Dat Ton (RDT), The Thai Yoga-Like system therapeutic exercise. After having learned and practiced the over 127 various techneques of RDT, I am impressed at how many resembly traditional Indian, Nepali and\or Tibetan Yoga poses and exercises. I am also struck by the use of Sanskrit Ayurvedic Medical Terminology used when describing the indications and benefits of certain techneques. Does anyone know the exact origin of this system? Is it possible that RDT is an ancient form of Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy which was lost in India during the 1000 years of invasion, occupation and colonization, yet survived in India's cultural colonies in South East Asia?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TaoMountain on -
Hi David. Thanks for sharing.
Someone else on this list will have something better to say than me on this, no doubt. However, as a historian of Asian medicine more generally, I can tell you that the exercises known as RDT are very similar to exercises done throughout Asia—from early Chinese daoyin (precursor of taichi), to medieval Indian hatha yoga, to contemporary Tibetan or Nepali or Korean yoga, and everything in between. The interesting question for me with such widely diffused technologies of health and healing is how much is transmitted knowledge (i.e., one culture invented it and it travelled all over the place) and how much is similar from place to place by virtue of us all finding ourselves within the same human body. (I call this the debate between the methodology of the historians and the practitioners, because it tends to be that historians like the former and practitioners like the latter.)
In this case, I would bet that it's a little bit of both but mostly a case of a body practice moving into Thailand from India. (You've hinted in your question at some of the evidence for this, such as the association with Indian languages.) In fact, it would be strange if Thailand did not inherit hatha yoga from India. We know that Thailand, on the receiving end of so much of Indian culture, adopted many other health/healing practices such as breathing exercises, Ayurvedic medicine, meditations, etc. It is natural that this practice also would have come over.
Whether or not they were written down, once arriving in Thailand, these practices were all handed from teacher to student among the rishis, monastics, and other practitioners until enshrined at Wat Pho in the 1830s and "fixed" in a form that we know today. The problem is we don't know the dates that yoga first came to Thailand. Call me a cynic, but I don't buy that RDT somehow represents a "pristine" form that was lost in ancient India. First of all, as a historian, in order to make that claim, I'd have to have a lot more historical documentation than we have at present. Given the sources we do have, in fact, one can't argue that RDT predates the 19th century in Thailand in its current form.
More than the lack of evidence, though, it requires a huge leap of faith to believe that—while all other cultures transformed and changed the techniques they inherited from India over time—somehow Thailand preserved them perfectly. While this story sounds nice if you're a practitioner of RDT, if you do a bit of research you'll find that virtually every other extant tradition of yoga also claims to be the "original," "pristine," or "lost" form of ancient India. They can't all be right.
The more likely story (again, speaking as a historian) is that they're all wrong. Whatever early forms of yoga existed in India are no doubt now long lost in practice, and are to be found only in texts dating from that period such as the early Upanishads and Yoga sutras. Clearly, Thai yoga is a variant of Indian prototypes—just as Tibetan, Nepali, and even Indian yoga are—but we can't say it's "older" or "more pure" than any other form of yoga. This, at least, is the most historically "safe" interpretation—at least until some ancient archaeological find on Thai soil can definitively prove otherwise.
I am always skeptical of origin stories, but I don't think I'm raining on the parade. Rather than seek solace in the "originality" or "ancientness" of our practices, I advocate understanding history as a story of continual change and development, and finding "authenticity" in our participation in this ever-changing lineage. For me, it all comes down to the integrity of our own practice and our relationship with our teachers.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to spout off. Please share any information you want to about RDT in this forum. Or start a group. I'm sure there's lots of interest.
P.
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Permalink Reply by David Wells on -
This weekend I attended the Thai Yoga Institute Conference in Bangkok. While there I was able to meet with Dr. M.M. Gharote of the Lonavala Yoga Institute in India. Among other things, they have published "The Encyclopadia of Traditional Asanas" wich contains every Asana described in the Classical Sanskrit Yoga Texts. After looking over the Reursi Dat Don Exercises he believes that they did come from India but could not say at what date.
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Permalink Reply by nephyr on -
hmmmm, thanks for the topic David. I tend to believe that bodies are bodies all over the world and that ultimately we all bend the same. Because of this it is impossible to say when these systems are inherited from other cultures and where they simply resemble them because... bodies are bodies all over the world and ultimately we all bend the same. I may be repeating Pierce in a highly simplified way here. We can speculate all we want, but reusi da ton could have just as easily have sprung forth naturally from the grounds of Thailand as it could have been delivered from India. We will probably never know. It's like, cupping. Cupping is found in the indigenous medicine of every continent on earth. It is my understanding that the earliest record of it comes from Egypt. Does this mean everyone got cupping from Egypt? We instinctively suck on a wound on our arm right? So it is just as easy to say no, suction as medicine doesn't come from Egypt, it's just a natural human healing practice. Truth is, we'll never know. I like what Pierce said about our own integrity and relationship with our teachers being what it all comes down to; for this is the history that matters for a practitioner.
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Permalink Reply by nemir adjina on -
Hello David,
Reusri may well be derived from Rishi (the Vedic Seer) and thus indicates that the practice may be derived from contact with India.
In "the History of Contorted Hermit" published by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, "Hermit" is referred to as a "kind of priest of before buddist period...",
Did you learn from a Thai teacher?
with best wishes
nemir
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Permalink Reply by David Wells on
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Hello Nemir,
Yes, I have studied with about six different Thai teachers of Reusi Dat Ton. And yourself?
David
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Permalink Reply by Eyal Erlich on -
Hey David,
I didnt get a chance to study it with pisit yet, since im more interested in the massage currently.
By the way , there are many teachers in Chiang mai for the practice.
Good Luck
Eyal
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