If you've studied at the Old Medicine Hospital, you can continue your studies by transferring coursework to the Thai Institute of Healing Arts. They will help provide you a path from your current training into the next level of education for you. You are also eligible to enroll in their FREE internship program for any courses that you are transferring into their program. To transfer into the Thai Institute of Healing Arts, please use the normal registration process for each course you’d like to take.

Any student that has studied in the below courses with our sister school, the Thai Institute of Healing Arts is eligible to transfer credits for courses taken to the Thai Massage School Shivagakomarpaj (Old Medicine Hospital − Chiang Mai, Thailand), as detailed below:

FREE Internship Program

The Old Medicine Hospital offers a FREE internship program in conjunction with our sister school in the USA, Thai Institute of Healing Arts.

After completing coursework with us or our sister school, you are welcome to return to any same course in the future FREE of charge to deepen your learning at either location. By attending the class as an intern, you have the ability to deepen your knowledge through increased exposure to the course material all over again. You will also accumulate additional training hours to qualify for professional memberships and meet insurance requirements. This unique program at the Thai Institute allows you the same opportunity right here in the USA or in Thailand at no additional cost — it's FREE.

To register for an internship at the Thai Institute of Healing Arts in Arlington, VA, please send an email request 4 weeks in advance of the course to "info @ thai-institute.com". Please include a scanned image of your certificate from Old Medicine Hospital. You may also transfer course credits from your previous studies to the Thai Institute of Healing Arts. See more information at this link, transfer course credits.

Shivagakomarpaj Lineage Annual Ceremony of "Wai Khru"
(Honoring the Teachers)

Wai khru (pronounced like the English words "why crew") is the most important spiritual practice of the Thai healer. Wai khru means "honoring the teacher," and this is the formal ceremony in which a practitioner of Thai massage or other healing arts honors his or her teachers and lineage.

It is interesting to note that not only traditional medicine practitioners, but shamans, fortune tellers, Thai kick-boxers (muay thai), and practitioners of many other arts each have their own wai khru ceremonies to pay homage to their own teachers and lineages. There is a common belief that these ancient practices will not be effective for a practitioner unless he or she participates in the wai khru ceremony on a regular basis.

The wai khru of the Thai healer involves a ceremony through which the practitioners show their gratitude to the lineage of teachers who handed ancient medical knowledge down to the present day, and receive the blessings of the masters. The ceremony is usually performed individually by practitioners in their homes or places of business every day. However, it is also important for practitioners to gather together once a year to honor the founders of their lineage as a whole.

The Shivagakomarpaj Lineage wai khru celebrates the Buddha's physician Jivaka (traditionally believed to have invented Thai massage around 2500 years ago) and Ajahn Sintorn (founder of the Old Medicine Hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand) as the founders of the lineage. While many Western students and practitioners in this lineage have learned an abbreviated wai khru ceremony and practice it on a regular basis, they are most often not able to attend the major annual ceremony in Chiang Mai. As part of our sister school’s responsibility as a Shivagakomarpaj Lineage seat, the Thai Institute of Healing Arts in Arlington VA assumes the responsibility of an annual major ceremony of wai khru on the East Coast of the U.S.

We invite all practitioners of Thai massage that are in any way connected with the Old Medicine Hospital and the Shivagakomarpaj Lineage to join in this annual celebration. Whether you studied with any teacher from the Old Medicine Hospital, Thai Institute of Healing Arts, or any other Western teacher, you are invited to participate in the ceremony in order to honor our lineage, receive the blessings of our masters, and ensure the effectiveness of your therapies. If you are teaching a form of Thai massage that derives from the Old Medicine Hospital curriculum, it is particularly important that you attend this ceremony annually in order to be considered a legitimate instructor in the Shivagakomarpaj Lineage.

There is no charge for the wai khru ceremony, although registration is required.
See http://thai-institute.com/ for details and registration.