Participants fight without gloves or protection only wrapping their hands in hemp or gauze cloth; rules are similar to Muay Thai but allow and encourage all manner of takedowns along with head butts. Traditionally held outdoors in sandpits instead of rings but in modern times are now held in rings. Popular technique in Lethwei include leg kicks, knees, elbows, head butts, raking knuckle strikes, and ballistic takedowns. In the past, sometimes biting and gouging were also permitted in the matches.
Matches traditionally and ulitmately would go until a fighter can no longer continue. In earlier times, there were no such result as draw, only win or lose by knockout. No point system existed. Extreme bloodshed was very common and death in the ring was no surprise. Nowadays in the match, if a knockout occurs, the boxer is revived and has the option of continuing; as a result, defense, conditioning, and learning to absorb punishment are very important. Burmese boxers spend a great deal of time preparing the body to absorb impact and conditioning their weapons to dish it out. Matches today are carried out in both the traditional manner and a more modern offshoot started in 1996, the Myanma Traditional boxing. The modern style has changed to make the contests more of an organized sport under the government's organization. The goal seems to be to make it a more marketable sport similar to Muay Thai. Some Lethwei boxers tried to participate in kickboxing and Muay Thai matches outside Myanmar but their extreme style and techniques were banned in worldwide kickboxing and Muay Thai matches thus making them unadaptable to professional sport fighting contests and consequently they never won major titles. There are a number of Lethwei boxers who do compete in Thailand professionally with varying degrees of success. It must be pointed out that the modern style of Myanma Traditional boxing greatly resembles Muay Thai in its sporting outlook and not quite the more rough and tumble fighting of its rural roots.
In many traditional and rural fights, audience is welcomed on board the ring to fight with the professional boxers. Sometimes, fighters among the audience successfully knock out the boxers in the ring.
Many of the ethnic groups within Burma have their own variant of the indigenous martial arts giving them sometimes distinctly different styles of Lethwei that make for exciting action packed matches.
The Kachin variant of Lethwei is referred to as soft (relaxed). There is very little wasted motion or effort. Lethwei matches usually start in long range with kicks to the legs and raking punches to the face in an effort to draw blood as matches continue the fighters end up in the clinch and the primary weapons used are standing grappling with various takedowns and sweeps along with the preferred finishing weapons of head-butts, elbows, and knees. The Kachin Practitioner generally prefers to fight from the clinch and tends not to fall after missing with a long distance strike opting to follow low line kicks and raking punches into close range.
If the sport is viewed in the context of preparing one for individual combat you can see that it not only teaches timing, distance, and movement but also the ability to absorb and deliver punishment thereby winning a war of attrition. The goal is not so much the winning and losing but fighting hard and learning lessons about survival.
A full body, comprehensive and evolving martial art. Bando has a rich history, due in part to the geographical location of its native Myanmar. (formerly Burma).
Anyone familiar with the major Japanese or Chinese martial arts will recognise aspects of their own embedded in Bando. Karate kick and punch techniques along with Judo type throws and rolls are all part of this eclectic system.
It’s important to note that in Myanmar the term ‘Thaing’ is often used to describe martial arts and indeed in many ways one might consider Thaing a direct equivalent to Wushu, the term used in neighbouring China.
Use of weaponry in Bando is not uncommon although broadly speaking, it is an unarmed system. You may find organisations describing themselves as Bando where they practice unarmed techniques and as ‘Thaing‘ where they use weapons, it’s a matter of choice rather than tradition. However, the terms are not interchangeable.
