CURRENT READINGS

1.) You can click here to read the  "OCTOBER FLOOD UPDATES" we posted on this page from October 5th to the 18th, 2024 -- a very rare event!

2.) As we are just moving from the Rainy Season into the Dry Season,  you might also be interested to read A NOTE ABOUT THE WEATHER IN CHIANG MAI.

.GENERAL INTRODUCTION.                                       November 20th, 2024

A Thai Massage School & Herbal Health Centre.

We are a Thai Ministry of Education school offering courses in the following (you can click on what interests you).

Traditional Thai Massage;

Thai Therapeutic Massage;

Womblifting & Post-Partum Care;

Food as Medicine;

Traditional Herbal Compresses & Health Care.

All our classes are taught by our director, Homprang Chaleekanha. They are in English, last from 10 to 25 days, and have a maximum of  12 students in a class.

We are unique in that we are a  Live-in School -- almost all our students live here with us. But we also welcome guests and non-studying partners, and a few students even come with children. Everybody enjoys eating together around our big table, and of course sitting in a chair like this on the porch of one of our old wooden farmhouses.

 

We are also well-known for our Massage Treatments and Herbal Steam Baths, but it's essential to phone  a few days ahead -- tel.  053.817.362. We have just reopened  after being closed for 2 1/2 years and don't yet have our full staff of therapists, so you may have to be patient. But do try -- we're doing our best!.

And finally, this is the home of Homprang's family which includes her husband, the poet Christopher Woodman, who has been assisting her for almost 30  years. He is the one who writes all this, and may even answer the phone.

Introducing --'BAAN ROM YEN -- Cool & Purified!

      Having only just survived the hottest Dry Season on record from March to the end of May, 2023, and realizing this is likely to be the norm for years to come, we have now completed a new Training Sala which can be air-conditioned when it's simply too hot to work in our much loved, beautiful but entirely open Baan Rusi.

      As to the name, BAAN means 'House' in Thai, and ROM YEN means 'Cool' -- in every sense of the word. Baan Rom Yen is not only air-conditioned but also has a built-in air purifier to filter out the smoke and dust which comes with the seasonal  heat. The space is 20% bigger than Baan Rusi as well, so there is even more space between the mats, important as most of our classes are full these days. And we have a special Ventilator System which brings in fresh filtered air from  the outside whether the air-conditioning is on or not.

      Homprang likes Baan Rom Yen so much she has decided to use it now for all her Massage classes regardless of the weather, and to reserve Baan Rusi for the Rasidaton each morning, and for Massage Treatments, Yoga, and of course special events and pujas.

   

For more information about the Thai Seasons and Air Pollution in particular, have a look at
 A NOTE ABOUT THE WEATHER IN CHIANG MAI.

2024-25 COURSE FEES

As announced, we have raised our Course Fees by 10%.

The new Course Fee is now Bt 2,400 per Study Day, and Bt 1,200 for Days-off & Extra Days.

The  Course Fee covers all of the following: 

1.) 1 hour of Rasidaton (Thai Yoga) at 7am;

2.) 6 hrs of Teaching & Supervised Practice -- 9am to 4pm;

3.) a Private Room with 3 meals a day (Full Pension);

4.) Herbal Steam Baths everyday at 5.30pm.

5.) The use of all our Facilities including our Pool, Bicycles and Wifi.

To reserve a place in a class there is a 25% Deposit -- the PayPal Buttons are to the right of each course on our Calendar Page:  https://www.homprang.com/courses_forming.htm

We now charge Bt 1,200 per day for Partners and Guests for Full Room & Board.

There is also a 10% increase in our charges for Treatments & Steam Baths.

                           [Today's Exchange Rate (July 7th, 2024):  $1.00 = Bt 34.34; €1.00 = Bt36.87]     

2024 CALENDAR

Click on Titles for More Information

November 23rd to December 17th, 2024
150hr THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE COURSE  STILL PLACES OPEN!
(22 study days & 3 days off

2025

January 3rd to 27th, 2025
150hr ADVANCED THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE COURSE    LIMITED PLACES
(open only to students who have  taken the 150hr Therapeutic Course at least once.)
(22 study days & 3 days off)

January 30th to February 5th, 2025
60hr FOOT REFLEXOLOGY   OPEN
                                          (6 study days) Priority to 150hr Advanced Therapeutic Students.

Feb 19th to March 5th, 2025
150hr THAI MASSAGE COURSE     OPEN
(22 study days & 3 days off)

March 19th to 28th, 2025
 60hr WOMBLIFTING & POSTPARTUM CARE   OPEN
(9 study days & 1 day off)

April 23rd to May 2nd, 2025
60hr HERBAL WORKSHOP with FOOD AS MEDICINE   OPEN
(9 study days & 1 day off)

May 8th to the 20th, 2025
 80hr THAI MASSAGE COURSE     OPEN
(12 study days & 1 day off)

You can visit  our CALENDAR or TRAINING  PAGE for more information.

HOW TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT US.

You can go to our Training Page for more Information on what it is like to study and live at our school.

You might want to look at our Credentials page. We are a Ministry of Education School and award official MOE Certificates.

Our Calendar Page lists all our courses with their dates and a detailed description of each.

Click here for questions about Reservations & Fees.

And click here for an 11 minute Video: LIFE AT BAAN HOM SAMUNPFRAI.

A Massage class in our original Training Sala, Baan Rusi.
(photo by Tobie Stevens)

HOW TO GET HERE from CHIANG MAI CITY:

You can go to our Where We Are page for maps and instructions. It takes 15-20 minutes from the Chiang Mai city centre in a tuk tuk, song taew or blue & yellow taxi -- they all cost about 200 baht. Our phone number is there too so when the driver gets lost he can phone us.

HOMPRANG CHALEEKANHA

 (Click on the Photo to see other things she does!)

Baan Hom Samunphrai is the home of Maw Samunphrai ("Herbal Medicine Doctor") Homprang Chaleekanha, 64, a specialist in Traditional Thai Massage (Nuad Boran) and Thai Yoga (Rasidaton) who also practices Thai Therapeutic Massage, Midwifery and Herbal Medicine. In the photo above  she is making a compress with fresh herbs, one of the favourite activities of her students from all over the world. (If you click on the Photo you can see some of the other beautiful and mysterious things she does with her students.)

'Maw Hom' 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.

Homprang 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 very rare facility among genuine traditional healers. And finally, Homprang has for years been very active in the local Thai community, and has volunteered her time and expertise to Thai patients as well as to the growing number of Thai students who are rediscovering their roots.

    

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.

For FLIGHT & VISA  INFORMATION please visit our  'WHERE WE ARE' page.