Each country in Southeast Asia has developed and promoted their indigenous sports in their own unique way. For example, one can learn from Muay Thai what has worked and what has not throughout its long history. Lethwei has been kept alive and is still heavily supported by rural communities. I focused primarily on the rural festivals and tournaments because they were an important link to how Lethwei competitions were fought in the distant past. Some seem unchanged by time, while others are fought in a more modern way that we are all accustomed to. It is clear the casual fighter who competes in these rural tournaments is not the professional fighter he needs to be to fight in the bigger events against more seasoned opponents.