Wai Khru, Thai Massage Prayer

Thai Massage is ancient bodywork from Thailand. This massage style is at its best when all parts of the tradition are taught and shared. An important aspect that often gets missed or not shared in massage schools is the Wai Khru puja (prayer) that traditional Thai massage practitioners say at the beginning and the end of each session as well as at the beginning and ending of each instructional session.
Wai Khru, in Thai, means “Honoring the Teacher”. “Wai” (pronounced “why”) is a traditional Thai greeting where your palms are together in a prayer-position at the heart space, and you typically bow to show respect as you say a greeting like “Sawadhee-Kah” (Hello or Goodbye) or “Kap Kun Kah” (Thank you). “Khru” means “Teacher” but not just one teacher – for this prayer, it’s all the teachers that have brought us to this place and time, doing this healing work. These teachers are the direct lineage we come from with our massage education, mentors, elders, parents, the Buddha (in Thailand, Buddhism is the predominant religion), and our spiritual lineage.
Thus, Wai Khru, in Thai Massage, means Respecting our Teachers (with a capital and collective “T”.) Along with honoring and respecting our teachers, this prayer is a chant, given in a chant-like way, which brings about a sense of meditation and reflection.
The concept of Wai Khru is also used as a ritual with Muay Thai boxing where students pay homage to their teachers and lineage, though they perform a different ritual that is called Wai Khru Ram Muay before a fight. The Wai Khru used for traditional Thai Massage is the prayer in this article.
The Wai Khru prayer used for traditional Thai Massage and Thai Medicine starts out with “Om Namo Shivago”. This prayer names one person that we pray to and honor as the founding doctor of Thai massage and Thai medicine. That person’s name is: Jīvaka Komārabhacca, often called Shivago in Thailand and the Shivago name in the prayer is to invoke his spirit and lineage. In the 5th-century BCE, he was a doctor in India who was a private physician to Buddha, to King Bimbisāra, and to many other Kings and nobility. He was considered a renowned healer and is honored by traditional healers in many Asian countries.

Some would also call this chant an Invocation, or a Calling In – calling in the spirit of those we are trying to invoke, or bring into the session – whether that be Jivaka, the Buddha, That Which You Pray To (all religions accepted here is my preference), your ancestors, your guides, your angels, and your spirits. “We invoke ALL of you to be here for this session, so that you may help guide me in healing this person,” is what I say to myself when I start a session along with saying the chant in this article. (I also like to say this phrase and chant to myself when I receive bodywork or healing of any kind).

The healing arts of India spread to Southeast Asia and Thailand with the spread of Buddhism from India to Thailand around the 3rd century BCE via missionaries and monks. That’s why the Thai traditional healers honor Jivaka because they are honoring one of the doctors that healed and helped the Buddha, and Buddhism (specifically Theravada Buddhism) is the predominant religion in Thailand as well as of traditional Thai Massage practitioners in Thailand.
This prayer holds a very dear, personal place in my heart. It attracted me and drew me in from the very first time I heard it and participated in it. I first experienced this prayer on my first day studying traditional Thai Massage in Chiang Mai, Thailand in October 2004. I had no idea what I was getting into – in all sorts of ways.
I had just left a career teaching English literature at a university in Denver to learn about Thai Massage and Thai Medicine in Thailand. I had received a Thai Massage session from a friend in Denver a few months prior, and I knew I needed to study and practice this healing art. As hyperbolic as it sounds, I was truly called to this work. It was such a YES for me that my skeptic self didn’t have time to make fun of myself or to stop myself.
On my first day of Thai Massage school in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I was given a spiral binder and was instructed to turn to one of the first pages, which had all these words I didn’t know. The top of the page said “Wai Khru”. I sat in a cross- legged position on the floor and was instructed to have my hands in a prayer position at my sternal area. Then, my instructor started swaying forward and back, rocking himself (he instructed us to do the same), and he said we were doing a Call and Response of this prayer to honor Jivaka and our Teachers. Call and Response meant that he chanted a line and then the class collectively chanted after him, and we went through the whole prayer that way. We continued the rocking and swaying during the whole chant as well.
That first prayer felt like a journey to myself, a coming home – but it was so odd because it was so new to me – it felt so right and both so foreign and so familiar at the same time. The rhythm and the way the sounds and intonations of the words came together grabbed me. I felt carried and elated and grounded all at the same time. I certainly felt present. I felt part of something much larger than myself.
I had grown up Christian and had said prayers all my life, so I wasn’t new to prayer, but there was something very special about this prayer that confirmed I was in the right place at the right time, and that pursuing the healing art of Thai Massage was exactly what I should be doing. I was reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist at this time. As the book mentions, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
This Wai Khru or “Om Namo,” as we often call it, felt like the universe was conspiring or joining forces to help me achieve my goals, which were to help and heal people with bodywork and to share that healing with the world. This prayer felt like a portal for me into a community of healers that helped me feel part of something with this work. This prayer still does this for me. Every Thai Massage class I teach starts and ends with this Wai Khru. Every Thai Massage session I do starts and ends with this Om Namo prayer.
When I do this prayer in a group setting, Call and Response style with my students, I let them know that I imagine we have one big cheerleading pyramid, where Jivaka and all founding Teachers are at the bottom of that pyramid, and they are bolstering us all up – and that my students are on my back and the backs of all of their massage teachers, mentors, and guides both physically and spiritually. And that each time we do this prayer, we are tapping into this ancient wisdom, guidance, and protection.
This prayer is a combination of Pali, Sanskrit, and Thai languages. Pali is a Middle Indo-Aryan language often used in Thervada Buddhism texts. Sanskrit is an ancient language of India, often used in Hindu texts (and yoga posture names), and some phrases in this prayer are more Thai and found in Thai Buddhist chants. Also, the intonation of this chant is very Thai, akin to the Thai language intonations.
Below is the prayer, in its entirety, with the English translation to follow.

Said three times:

Om namo Shivago silasa ahang karuniko

Sapasatanang osatha tipa-mantang papaso

Suriya-jantang gomalapato paka-sesi wantami

Bantito sumethasso alokha Sumani Homi

Said once:

Piyo-tewa manussanang piyo-poma namuttamo

Piyo-nakha supananang pinisiang nama-mihang

Namo-puttaya navon-navien nasatit-nasatien

Ehi-mama navien-nawe napai-tang-vien

Navien—mahaku ehi-mama piyong—mama

Namo-puttaya

Said three times:

Na-a-na-wa lokha payati vina-santi

English Translation

We invite the spirit of our founder, the father doctor Shivago, who comes to us through his saintly life.  Please bring to us the knowledge of all nature, which this prayer will show as the true medicine of the universe.  In the name of this mantra, we respect your help and pray that through our bodies, you will bring wholeness and health to the body of our client. The Goddess of Healing dwells in the heavens high, while humankind dwells in the world below. In the name of the founder may the heavens be reflected in the world below so this healing medicine may encircle the world.  We pray for the ones we touch, that they will be happy and illness will be released from them.

As you can see, it’s quite lengthy. It’s even longer when done in a Call and Response style because almost every word is repeated (the teacher says it and then the students repeat that word and on it goes). I was also confused at first by the name, “Doctor Shivago” with the English translation – wondering if this was connected to the 1965 movie “Doctor Zhivago”. No connection – but it always brings a smile to my face regardless.
The prayer’s length is purposeful – it’s an act of meditation – to get you into a place of prayerful meditation and honor. I find the rhythm and rocking of my body while chanting this prayer makes me feel like the ocean, like the ebb and flow of the waves – that oceanic pulse – coming in, going out, flowing here, and flowing there. And especially when done in a Call and Response style. I also love doing the prayer by myself where I just flow from one word to the other.
While I love being in the meditative rock of this prayer, the practical side of me also wondered about how to do this for every Thai massage, as I was instructed to do (before and after). Mostly, I was worried about offending someone and being off-putting with this prayer. Growing up Christian, if I had come across this prayer in my earlier years, it would have been considered sinful to partake in this prayer, seeming like I might be worshipping someone other than God. So, I didn’t want my affinity for this prayer and its affinity with the Thai and Buddhist cultures to create a barrier for my massage client to drop in, relax, and heal.
I found the courage to ask my instructor at one point early on, “This is such a long prayer. While I love it, I also wonder how my massage clients will feel about me singing/chanting to them for several minutes before their massage. Could I do this prayer silently to myself? And is there a shorter option for this prayer? To still bring forth its essence but save some time and keep it to myself?”
My teacher had a gracious, non-dogmatic answer, which I loved. He said I could certainly say this prayer to myself, as I’m warming up their body and getting in the mode for the session, and that I could certainly say this prayer to myself. Also, I could say the first and last line of this prayer, like an Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end of the prayer – saying that three times to encapsulate the chant’s essence.
I was relieved and excited I had this alternate way to bring the Wai Khru’s essence into my sessions. Below is the short version of the Wai Khru:

Said three times:
Om namo Shivago silasa ahang karuniko
Na-a-na-wa lokha payati vina-santi

English Translation:
We invite the spirit of our founder, the father doctor Shivago, who comes to us through his saintly life. We pray for the ones we touch, that they will be happy and illness will be released from them.

I LOVE this last line – We pray for the ones we touch, that they will be happy and illness will be released from them. Such wise simplicity with so much heart. I hope you’ll watch my videos of me reciting this prayer (all versions – long, short, call and response, and solo) and add this ritual to your meditation practice and to your massage practice. It’s guided me, encouraged me, and protected me since 2004 and continues to this day.
Sawahdee Kha and Kap Kun Kah!

May the Divine in me always Bow to the Beautiful Divinity within You,

Hillary

This article was written by our founder and owner, Hillary Hilliard. She has been a Massage Therapist since 2004 and an Herbalist since 2010. She also teaches classes for our herbalism program, Herbalism Roots, the Denver Integrative Massage School, and for our aesthetics program, the School of Botanical & Medical Aeshtetics. Hillary loves being connected with all aspects of her schools, and she’s very grateful for these opportunities to share her passion and love for the healing arts and the beauty arts with as many people as possible.