GENERAL INTRODUCTION. You can click on what interests you below.

We're a Traditional Thai Massage School and Herbal Medicine Centre as well as a sort of Thai village inn with Live-in Accommodations for both students and guests.  Our school offers live-in Traditional Thai Massage Training Courses at all levels from novice to professional with classes limited to a maximum of 12. We also welcome the growing number who are interested in alternative medicine in general, but we offer complete courses only, not just brief introductions. On the other hand, we do offer short courses on Herbs, Herbal Therapies, Womblifting, Abdominal Massage and Foot Reflexology-- if you don't find what you want on our Training Page or Calendar, do ask us. And if you're a guest, just come and stay for as long as you like -- you can sit in this actual chair on the porch upstairs in your house.

 

Our Director, the well-known teacher, Homprang Chaleekanha, is licensed as a Traditional Doctor, Herbal Pharmacologist, and Midwife by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, and our Certificates recognized  by The Thai Ministry of Education. In addition, we host Groups, Conferences and Seminars (up to 20 participants) for those who want to come here with their own teachers and/or special interests--from yurts to yours truly and yoga. Long Stay is possible as well --we're not right for everyone but very right for some, and have had guests in full or partial Retreat for up to 6 months--writers, thinkers, bodies and minds in recovery, lives being rebuilt. Finally, this is also the home of the poet, Christopher Woodman, and we welcome writers, artists, musicians and indeed anyone who is troubled by the muse, or whatever you call that thing buzzing around  in your bonnet.

HOW TO GET HERE:

You can print out our Map in Thai and English to get here. It takes 15-20 minutes from the Chiang Mai city centre in a tuk tuk (3 wheeler), song taew (red pick-up truck taxi) or blue & yellow passenger-car taxi -- they all cost about the same. Our phone numbers are all there so when the driver gets lost he can phone us.

There are more maps and information on our Where We Are page.

OUR TREATMENTS:

Among other services, we offer Thai Traditional Massage and Herbal Steam Baths in a small village 9 kms southwest of Chiang Mai. It's better to phone ahead as we have only a few therapists --  081.885.1429 goes straight to Homprang who still makes all the bookings.

A Full Massage takes about two hours and costs 800 baht -- a Foot Massage is 400 baht and takes about one hour. Either can be combined with a  Herbal Steam Bath (200 baht) which can take up to an hour and includes dips in our cooling pool along with home-grown herb tea.

If you think you might benefit from a special Therapeutic Massage (1300 baht), Therapeutic Massage with Herbal Compresses (1600 baht), or Womb-lifting (1600 baht), you can discuss your condition with Homprang. Indeed, you may come just for an informal talk about your condition with her -- there is no charge for that.

 (You can click here  for a list of our Treatments and Charges.)

                 
                           You will walk by the moss-covered waterpot under our Bo Tree as you enter.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Beside students and their partners, our guests include individuals of all ages, couples and whole families who come to us for a variety of reasons: the beauty of the place, the good company around our big table, the herbal steam baths, massages and other therapies, and of course the opportunity to relax, catch up, recover, or get on with some personal project. There are no coffee shops, restaurants, bars or even 7/11s around us, so you can't just walk out our door for urban refreshment. On the other hand, we have rice fields, the river, small local temples and earth-markets everywhere, and very likely you will be the only foreigner wherever you go, on foot or by bicycle. It's rough, simple, and there's an awful lot of litter, but it's also somehow more than just there, and much more than beautiful.

You can find out more about what it's like here in "Where We Are."

You can go to "Accommodations" for a description of our houses, and  here  for our Rates.

 
Baan Uii Dee with its hand-made green tiles -- always cool and  fresh under bare feet (no shoes are worn on any of our floors). You can see how the floor is used in the various photos of students preparing herbs for herbal compresses and steam baths in the subsequent pages.

 HERBAL WORKSHOPS, August to January 2018

1.) Aug 7th to 9th, 2017     A THAI MEDICINE SEMINAR with NEPHYR JACOBSEN

2.) Aug 21st to 30th, 2017  60hr WOMBLIFTING & Related Herbal Therapies;

3.) Sept. 4th to 8th, 2017    35hr HERBAL THERAPIES for HERBALISTS

4.) Jan. 4th to 9th, 2017     40hr HERBAL THERAPIES w/ FOOD as MEDICINE.

                (Please take note of this change of date.)

                   

                                  CLICK HERE  for a whole gallery of herbal workshop photos..  

   You can see all our workshops, seminars & events on our Calendar Page

THAI MASSAGE COURSES, September to December 2017

                               (you can click on the titles for more information)

1.) Sept.11th to Oct, 5th, 2017. 150hr COMPLETE THAI MASSAGE COURSE    

This course covers the whole Thai Massage with a particular emphasis on the acupressure points and sen lines -- it is suitable both for beginners and experienced practitioners, indeed for anyone who wants to master and/or deepen the full Thai Traditional Massage. It also qualifies participants for the Special Therapeutic Course in November.

Some may want to consider taking two or even three of these courses one after the other -- some may even combine them with other adventures like a trip down the Mekong to  Laos, a trek in the high  jungle, or even a 20 day Vipassana Retreat.

2.) Oct. 17th to 29th, 2017.  80hr 'TECHNIQUE'  for ADVANCED STUDENTS &

                PROFESSIONAL THERAPISTS                                                             

This course is designed both for advanced students who want to become professionals and for professionals who want to refresh themselves, deepen their work, and perhaps go on to join Homprang's Special Therapeutic course that follows.  (You can click on the course title for more information on all that.)

3.) Nov 20th to Dec 14th, 2017. 150hr SPECIAL THERAPEUTIC COURSE

                                   This course is open to ex-students only.

There is more and more interest in the new massage treatments for serious physical conditions which are being developed by Homprang and her Thai colleagues in Chang Mai.

This course fills up fast, so if you want to join it you should make up your mind fairly soon -- there are only a few places left even now.

       * There is more on the links between these 3 courses on our Training Page HERE.

       * There is more on what Homprang says about Technique HERE.

       * There is also more on why this course is for ex-students only HERE.

                            

For a complete list of our Courses, Events, Seminars and Workshops, please visit our   CALENDAR PAGE.

HOMPRANG CHALEEKANHA: 

Baan Hom Samunphrai is the home of Maw Samunphrai ("Herbal Medicine Doctor") Homprang Chaleekanha, 58, a specialist in Traditional Thai Massage (Nuad Boran) and Thai Yoga (Rasidaton) who also practices Thai Therapeutic Massage, Midwifery and Herbal Medicine. 'Maw Hom,' as she is called, grew up in a small village on the Burmese border with no road or electricity, the only 'doctor' being her rice-farming grandmother who doubled as the local mid­wife and herbalist -- there's more about her grandmother here. Maw Hom is now not only licensed by the Thai Ministry of Public Health as a Traditional Doctor but as a Herbal Pharmacologist, a Traditional Midwife, and a Massage Teacher, and her school is approved by the Thai Ministry of Education. She has also travelled widely in Europe and North America, and is fluent in English as well as Thai, a rare facility among genuine traditional healers. And finally, Homprang is very active in the local Thai community, and volunteers her time and expertise to Thai patients as well as to the growing number of Thai students coming back to their traditional medicine. And she's an inspiring leader.

  

Maw Hom comparing notes with a Canadian Botanist; enjoying her friends by the pool; working with two professional colleagues, one Thai, one English; leading the Rasidaton (Thai Yoga) at 7am.

Introducing her western students to Acharn Suwan, a Buddhist philosopher & herbalist, at his simple garden retreat in Chiang Dao; demonstrating 'Womb-lifting' at an International Health Exhibition; with her colleagues at The Association of Thai Traditional Healers -- as a group they are heavily involved with teaching young Thai students old medicine!

   

All the above roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit have medicinal value, and Maw Hom will show you them if not in her own herb  garden then in her community or earth market. In the final photo, Maw Hom is showing Thai children from an International School how medicines were made when she was a child.  The students all left with a little bottle of Tiger Balm made by themselves. This, she feels, is some of her most influential work.

               HOW OTHERS SEE US: