Known for it’s entertaining, brutal and highly skilled bouts, Lumpinee Stadium brings the best of Thai boxers from all over Thailand (and the world) to face each other in this historical ring. The 70+ year old stadium holds a certain level of prestige that everyone in the Muay Thai community respects. It is every Thai boxing student’s dream to fight at this world renowned stadium.
Lumpinee has been open since 1956. Since opening it’s doors in that early December, it has never once allowed a female fight. 2021 brought news that Lumpinee is finally going to allow female bouts and this is a massive step forward for women in the world of Muay Thai. This is why..
A brief history of "under the ropes"
In traditional Muay Thai bouts, at best, women are allowed to compete but have to enter the ring underneath the ropes. This stems back to an accepted tradition from across Thailand. This isn’t necessarily meant to be a slight at women, but more just an overall belief around periods. There are different tales from each area in Thailand about this belief.
Back in the day, when Siam was at war, the king of Chiang Mai wanted to marry a woman. All the rest of the people lived in the Doi Suthep area. In order for him to marry her, he had to throw a spear that would land in Lamphun. The woman made his hat with her blood from her period and he didn’t make it. He never failed before, so people began to associate menstruation with bad luck.
There has always been some sort of superstition with periods, and Muay Thai isn’t exempt. It happens across cultures, religious belief, and people worldwide. Therefore, it’s natural for a superstitious belief about menstruation begin to develop. This is really important to understand because, for a very long time, women have not been allowed to touch a ring, let alone have the ability to fight in a ring.
Many Thais believe the ring is protected by spirits. Rings are often blessed. In Thai culture, the head is accepted as the most sacred part of the body. Fighters wear a Mongkol that is blessed when we square off the ring before the bout. Nothing should go above the head. There are many traditional details about Muay Thai that really encapsulate this desire to bring good luck, protection, and fortune to a fighter. Of course, blessings of the ring, Mongkol, and amulets are all part of this. All of these different reasons give way to why women are expected to go underneath the ropes while their male counterparts end up going over the ropes. It is expected to respect the spirits and blessings surround the ring.
Due to this, I suspect it would be out of fear of breaking tradition, being disrespectful, and/or creating bad luck that women have been kept under the ropes if they have been able to fight at all. In most cases, women are not allowed to touch the ring. It doesn’t matter if you actually are menstruating or not – it is the elimination of possibility in which you are because it is hard to be able to identify. It would be easy for one to lie about their current physical situation or for it to happen while in contact with the ring.
These are the age-old traditions that have been set in the culture for a long time that have prevented some of the advancement of women in Muay Thai. However, things have changed over time and it looks much different today than it has in the past.
Women's muay thai today
Women’s Muay Thai has drastically improved in recent years and continues to grow in popularity and acceptance. However, there is still a lot of room for advancement. It is still a very new sport for women. Many girls are often forced to retire earlier than they would like to because they either lack fighting opportunities at more prestigious stadiums (such as Lumpinee) or they end up running out of opponents; many women who have been fighting for a while end up recycling fight opponents.
Many stadiums around Thailand have already begun to allow women to fight. Now, it is common to have at least one female bout (or more) at most events. The beliefs and traditional culture is a very large part of why women enter the ring under the ropes and why in many places they have not been permitted to touch the ring. Lumpinee Stadium is included in this list that also has not allowed women to touch the ring up…until recently.
Not only was Lumpinee able to create hope for many nak muay ying by opening it’s doors for us to compete, it was able to do so when fights have been more scarce during the global pandemic. It is a huge, overdue step forward for women in this sport. Perhaps some women can pursue longer careers. Perhaps more women will be motivated to join the ranks with their female counterparts by more involvement in Muay Thai. And finally, perhaps there will eventually become a wider acceptance of female involvement with this sacred sport. With Lumpinee being one of, if not the, most important and respected stadiums for Muay Thai in general, this news will hopefully pave the way for many, many more possibilities for the future of women’s Muay Thai.
Lumpinee Stadium’s first female bout is tentatively slated for June or July (it is really dependent on the covid situation in Thailand).
Blog Post by Ariel McGuire
Follow @ArielMcGuire
