The social image of Muay Thai in Thailand Hishida yoshifumi Abstract Muay Thai is a martial art which is a root of Japanese Kick Boxing and K-1. It has become a famous sport among Thai as a martial art. However, there are two hierarchies; the low-income-class who support Muay Thai and the wealthyclass who do not. Muay Thai players are usually poor and even champions are not well known. Moreover, they do not live well off even after becoming a Muay Thai player. Most of them are from ISAN area which is rated as the poorest area. They usually chose to be Muay Thai players as their occupation. The supporters of the Muay Thai are not wealthy people such as university students or of the elites-class who have received a higher education, but the day laborers or lower paid workers. The Muay Thai stadium is used as a venue for gambling. There are various ways of gambling at the Muay Thai stadium. Audiences are if not tourists, are all gamblers. It is a bustling venue since Chinese promoters manipulate the poorest Thais at the stadium. Muay Thai stadium represents a microcosm of Thai society. Since Muay Thai involves such gambling, the wealthy-class and university students who have received a higher education look down on it rather than showing interest. This research is an analysis on why the wealthy people such as university students and the elite-class do not show any interest and conversely the low-income-class such as blue-color workers support Muay Thai enthusiastically. Keywords : gambling, social class, national sport
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8) Pasuk Phongpaichit, Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, Nualnoi Treerat