The Baan Hom Samunphrai School Chiangmai, Thailand |
|||
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai 93/2a Moo 12 Tawangtan, Saraphi, Chiang Mai 50140, THAILAND
tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
--------INDEX--------
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai 93/2a Moo 12 Tawangtan, Saraphi, Chiang Mai 50140, THAILAND
tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
--------INDEX--------
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai 93/2a Moo 12 Tawangtan, Saraphi, Chiang Mai 50140, THAILAND
tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) )e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
--------INDEX--------
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
--------INDEX--------
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
--------INDEX--------
Address: Baan Hom Samunphrai tel. 053-817-362 (English & Thai) tel. 081.885.1429 (Homprang direct) e-mail: baanhom@homprang.com
|
"The House of Sweet Smelling Herbs" : FLOOD UPDATES BREAKING NEWS #1 October 5th, 2024 September is always the wettest month by far, and this year was the worst. There was serious flooding back in Sept. 2013 and again in Sept. 2022, but just a week ago, September 26th, 2024, Chiang Mai suffered the highest flood level ever recorded. On the other hand, the city has worked extremely hard to improve its flood controls, dykes and sluice gates, and the beautiful Old City stayed dry -- that's where we recommend you book your guesthouses! Downtown Chiang Mai (south of the City from the Worarot Market to Nong Hoi and Wiang Kum Kam) was under water for 2 full days, but Thais are used to that. Indeed many of the noodle shops in the affected areas remained open, and who would be bothered by a bit of water around the ankles? Rice culture is a water world -- Thais know it, deal with it, and move on. And of course the temperature remains balmy, and the mood always positive. We flooded too this year, but all but one of our bedrooms are in houses on stilts, and our one room downstairs stayed dry -- by just an inch! In fact it's one of our best bedrooms and with a private bathroom to boot, and the lucky student who got it preferred not to move to the new bedroom we offered upstairs! We never missed a day of the class or a meal during the flood, and to compensate for the inconvenience we laid on an extra study-day free of charge at the end. Not everybody loved it all the time, but we don't think anyone regretted the experience.
On October 4th, 2024, a 2nd wave of flood water arrived from Mae Sai and Chiang Rai in the North. The first had come down from the mountains in the East and was, for 5 days, history-making. But it was nowhere near what this second wave has been. You could hardly keep your feet in the torrent that swept across our car park -- driving back to our house I felt our beautiful new Isuzu song taew was going to be swept off the road! Our community has never been hit so hard in the 30 years we have been here, and there's irony in that. The only flood barrier not yet completed on the Ping in Chiang Mai is our own 300m long bank just downstream from the old McKean Leprosy Mission. The irony is that for the first time in 150 years McKean remained dry behind a beautiful new dyke with stainless steel handrails completed just a few weeks before. By contrast, our village's make-shift sand-bag wall collapsed, and a wall of water struck us directly from the West. The whole of our village was swamped in a few hours, just as the lepers and care-givers had been at the McKean Mission so many times in the past. (There are no lepers at McKean anymore, a cure having been found in 1954, but the island remains a sanctuary dedicated to them, and we feel honored to live in their shadow.)
The flood level started to go down early this morning, and we very much hope that in the next 48 hours we can at least get 1.) a toilet working, 2.) some fresh water flowing, and 3.) our domestic kitchen functional. We expect to begin the big clean-up in a day or two: downstairs in our 9 houses first, then the two steam baths, the paths, the garden, and car parks (fortunately our 2 big training salas remained dry). We'll need a week for that with all the staff and family working. Fortunately the next class is not until October 20th -- plenty of time for us to get washed too! We apologize with all our hearts to the 6 students who we won't be able to welcome here for the 60hr Womblifting Course from October 6th to the 15th. They each get a free deposit for any of our courses in the future, and we so hope they will be able to get back to us soon. We will be posting more news for the 14 students that are signed up for the 60hr Herbal Therapies coming up, October 21st to the 30th. A wonderful group including a number of important herbalist friends. And we will make it happen!!!
More information for any of you who are still worried about whether or not we will be ready for the 60hr Herbal Therapies with Food as Medicine from October 20th to the 31st -- and the answer is as always, and with regard to Deluges in particular: "God Willing!" -- also as in every other language under the sun: "MERCI BEAUCOUP!" So we thank you all, dear friends, for your encouragement, for your good thoughts, and for your trust in Baan Hom Samunphrai. The 'Klong' (the irrigation canal that runs beside us) is all the way down, our drains cleared, and our toilets, showers and water pumps functional. In addition our 7 refrigerators and 3 water coolers are safely back on the ground and humming (they'd all been jacked up above the first flood 2 weeks before). And last but not least, the red bricks of our pathways are slowly but surely being scrubbed to their warm red welcome, and the tiles on our floors to their gleaming. Still the big kitchen to go -- it's all cleaned up but not yet reassembled. Yesterday Nooey and Aie spent all day with a big soapy tub between them washing all the dishes cups, glasses, pots, pans, and implements, and today they're all rinsed and laid out on bamboo racks to dry in the sun. Getting the washing machines back in place and going again is next - such piles of brown laundry! So it's still not all done by any means, but fortunately we have over a week left to attend to the details, like rinsing off the medicinal shrubs, bushes and trees that Homprang will be showing you in her garden. And she'll soon be taking an all day trip up north to Chiang Dao as well, the largest Herbal Market in Thailand. She will return with baskets full of fresh roots, leaves, fruits and bark for you to slice up and grind in your mortars and pestles. And before you get here we'll be looking after ourselves too, and be fully ready to welcome you to Baan Hom Samunphrai -- (in Thai "Baan" means house, family compound, or village, "Hom" fragrance, and "Samunphrai" herbs.)
THERE WILL BE UPDATES POSTED HERE
FREQUENTLY.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 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). Womblifting & Post-Partum Care; 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 (scroll down to 'HOW TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT US' below to see 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.
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 35.62; €1.00 = Bt38.91]
Click on Titles for More Information
October 7th to 15th, 2024
October 21st to 30th, 2024
November 23rd to December
17th, 2024 2025
January 3rd to 27th, 2025
January 30th to February 5th, 2025
Feb 19th to March 5th, 2025
March 19th to 28th, 2025
April 23rd to May 2nd, 2025
May 8th to
the 20th, 2025 You can visit our CALENDAR or TRAINING PAGE for more information.
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.
(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. . An appreciation of us by Brie Jacobs. "Thailand for me was such a beautiful, eye opening, majestic experience. I took over 4,000 photos in an effort to preserve the impressions as much as possible for when I got back home. Its something I want to relive over and over ." Click on Brie's Porch for an inspired PHOTO ALBUM. . For FLIGHT & VISA INFORMATION please visit our 'WHERE WE ARE' page. |