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Wat Pho statues · Postures · Learning

Ruesi dat ton, the hermit exercises

Ruesi dat ton, the hermit’s self-stretching, is a set of Thai exercises that combine slow stretches, self-massage and breathing. Its best-known record is a garden of hermit statues at Wat Pho in Bangkok, and it is often sold abroad as Thai yoga. Here is what it is, where it comes from, how it differs from Indian yoga and from Thai massage, and how to learn it.

The name

ฤๅษีดัดตน (ruesi dat ton) is three words: ruesi, a hermit or sage, the same word as the Sanskrit rishi; dat, to bend or straighten into shape; and ton, oneself. The hermits of Thai stories live in the forest, meditate, and know medicine, magic and the arts. Thai musicians, dancers and healers still honour a hermit teacher, the old father, in the ceremonies that open their training, and it is natural that a set of exercises for keeping the body supple should be credited to them.

The first letter of the name is ฤ, one of the two letters that sit among the consonants but are really vowels; the alphabet explains why.

The statues at Wat Pho

In the 1830s, when King Rama III rebuilt Wat Pho as a place of public learning, he had statues made of hermits in eighty exercise postures, each with a verse inscribed beside it naming the posture and the ache or stiffness it was meant to ease. The temple’s stone inscriptions on medicine and massage date from the same years and are now on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Only about two dozen of the hermit statues can be seen in the temple today. A manuscript of the same reign draws the full set, and a 2021 study comparing it with the statues found that most of the postures on display match the drawings.

The statues are worth finding when you visit. They are small, lively figures, bearded and knotted into their postures, and many are rubbed shiny by visitors.

What the postures are like

Ruesi dat ton is not a sequence of difficult poses held for a long time. A typical posture is a slow movement into a stretch, held for a few breaths, often with the hands pressing or rubbing the part being stretched, then released and repeated. Many are done sitting or kneeling: the hands clasped and pushed overhead, the trunk turned to look behind, a knee drawn to the chest, the jaw and face rubbed, the fingers pressed along the arms. The breath is slow and even, in through the nose as the stretch builds, out as it releases.

Thailand’s Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine promotes a basic set of fifteen postures as exercise for everyday health and publishes illustrated guides to them, including guides for people with back pain. You will see groups of older people doing them in parks in the early morning.

Is it yoga?

The word ruesi and some of the postures point to India, where yoga also grew among forest ascetics, and a few figures at Wat Pho look much like familiar yoga poses. But ruesi dat ton developed in Thailand as part of Thai traditional medicine. Its aim is practical: to loosen stiffness, ease aches and keep the body working, alongside massage and herbal remedies. It is exercise rather than a spiritual path, and Thai Buddhists who practise it meditate in the Buddhist way.

The link with Thai massage is closer. Both work along the same lines through the body, and many postures look like a massage done to yourself. Some massage courses in Thailand include ruesi dat ton, to keep the therapist’s own body fit for the work.

How to learn it

  • Start with the basic set. The department’s fifteen postures are a sensible beginning, and its illustrated guides show each step.
  • Take a class if you can. Thai traditional medicine schools, including the one at Wat Pho, teach the exercises, often as part of a massage course, and some yoga studios in Thailand and abroad teach them on their own.
  • Go slowly. Move into each stretch over a few breaths, never bounce, and stop at the point of tension, not pain.
  • Make it daily and short. Ten or fifteen minutes a day is enough to start.
  • Ask a doctor first if you have back or joint pain, an injury, a heart condition, or are pregnant. The postures are exercise, not treatment.

Sources

Checked against the sources below.

Questions people ask

Is ruesi dat ton the same as Thai yoga massage?

No. “Thai yoga massage” is a name used abroad for traditional Thai massage, in which a therapist stretches you. Ruesi dat ton is a set of exercises you do yourself, combining stretches, self-massage and slow breathing. They come from the same tradition of Thai traditional medicine and share its idea of lines through the body.

Do I need to be flexible to do ruesi dat ton?

No. Most postures are simple: sitting, kneeling or standing, with the arms, neck and back stretched slowly and held while you breathe. They are often taught to older people. Go only as far as is comfortable, and if you have pain or a health condition, ask a doctor first.

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