THE WELLNESS QUOTIENT

An Interview with Krip Rojanastien

Chairman and CEO of Chiva-Som International Health Resorts Co. Ltd. Managing Chiva-Som Hua Hin, Thailand & Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som, Qatar

In March 2024, Kathiwada City House in Mumbai, was deeply honoured to welcome Krip Rojanastien, and the team from Chiva-Som, a world’s pioneer in transformative wellness brand who manages in Thailand & Zulal

The House of Kathiwada and Chiva-Som collaborated to put together a complete immersion into Chiva-Som’s world of wellness - one which we believe has multiple synergies

Over a three-day period, we invited our members to experience Chiva-Som’s unique wellness services for themselves. From nutrition to massage, physiotherapy to counselling, both retreats offer clients an integrated approach to personal wellbeing.

Khun Krip sums it up perfectly when he says:

“The Indian market is a wonderful market for us. It has been very receptive to our offering, and Indian clients are coming more and more to our retreats. Indians have a strong Ayurvedic background and understanding of wellness, and therefore they’re very open to absorbing other forms of traditional medicines. All forms of traditional medicine have a lot of commonalities. They are all geared to achieve the same goals, so people who are into traditional medical know-how will find us quite easy to absorb.”

But before we begin, let’s set the context for you:

The whisper of the breeze, the soundtrack of the ocean. Set amid seven acres of lush greenery, Chiva-Som is a sanctuary on the shores of Hua Hin. One where your mind, body and spirit are nourished and nurtured to nd their optimal equilibrium.

Chiva-Som was Khun Krip’s father’s brainchild. When he was struggling with stress and an unhealthy lifestyle, Khun Krip turned to Chiva-Som and within its environs, he regained the balance that he was seeking in his life. He not only got fitter, but also became a marathon runner, turning his health around completely. It was a paradigm shifting moment in his life.

Wellness soon became his full-time passion, as he devotes his career to building pathbreaking wellness retreats that have a resounding ripple effect on the individual and society. Several years later, he made another groundbreaking decision. To step beyond Thai borders and open Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som, a holistic wellness destination in Qatar that is focused on indigenous wellness practice called Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine (TAIM) and Family Wellness concept.

Set amid the shifting sand-dunes of the Qatari desert, Zulal Wellness Resort is an oasis for those who seek to achieve a deeper understanding of themselves across the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual dimensions of their being. The resort lays emphasis on Family Wellness for those who seek to deepen their relationships and build a heightened degree of understanding and empathy within their immediate circle. It offers health and fitness guidance to get in shape, as well as emotional and spiritual guidance to calm the mind and rekindle your creativity.

As Krip Rojanastien deepened his own understanding of the various factors that impact the health and wellbeing of an individual, he realized that one’s immediate family and inner circle played a pivotal role in the process. If one member of the family is off kilter, it has an impact on everyone else. Therefore, it is key that the family dynamics are optimal, in order for each individual to thrive.

That’s when he realized the critical need for a wellness philosophy that went beyond the individual level and targeted various relationships within the immediate family circle. This concept underscores the wellness philosophy at Zulal.

Q 1: As Chiva-Som celebrates 30 years of pioneering wellness, can you tell us how you envision the balance between traditional medical sciences (Ayurveda, TCM, TAIM, TTM) and therapeutic innovations such as genomics? Do you believe that traditional medicine must stay rooted in its authentic traditions, or do you feel that there is scope for innovation and evolution within the traditional methods of practice?

It is important to retain the core principles of traditional medicine, but it is equally important to adapt it to our times to make it relevant to all. Traditional medicine usually focuses on holistic health intervention, which continues to be relevant to today’s world. There are so many techniques that have been developed in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for example, in several parts of the world. They have their own tweaks and techniques but are just as effective.

Clients want to understand science. Genomics, for example, is not therapeutic, but it helps us understand the client’s genetic profile. We always rely on a combination of western diagnostic skills and traditional therapies. The guest needs to be aware of the propensity for disease, and that’s what genomics can tell you. Be it diabetes, cancer or other diseases. Our programs train them to avert or minimize the risk.

Q2: Stress is tough on the immune system. Would you please share your personal insights on how one achieves the delicate balance of wellness in body, mind, soul and spirit as part of one’s everyday lifestyle?

There are many ways to address stress, which is one of the key elements of our wellness program today. So many people under stress seek our help. The aim is to attain a calm, focused and receptive mind, an illness-free body and a lively, engaging spirit on an ongoing basis. It is indeed a fine balance that one pursues for a lifetime. And getting as close to attaining it as possible will help deal with stress in the most natural and holistic way.

Q3: You mention that “wellness is more than the absence of illness. It is the process of attaining optimal physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.” Can you expand on how you go about achieving this at Chiva-Som? What would you say are three take-aways for a guest after a retreat at Chiva-Som?

Wellness is a lifestyle. It is not a vacation. It’s a new way of life. The experience is transformative.

Guests will experience firsthand the transformative power of healthy living and the positive impact it has on their overall wellbeing. They will leave Chiva-Som with the tools and knowledge to continue their wellness journey and our support long after the retreat ends.

Striking ‘The Perfect Balance’ of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing is probably impossible. That’s why striving for it through the wellness lifestyle is an endless journey, but an enjoyable one.

Q4. In a country like India, the growth in lifestyle non-communicable conditions e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular malfunction, etc. is very high. What are some of the key preventive measures that an individual can take to pre-empt the onset of such conditions?

Absolutely. The mind and the spirit are the key drivers of everyday life. The mind should be calm, focused and receptive. Emotions should be bright and engaging. Those would be the conditions you seek. Often, the tendency would be to do your best in the workplace and then switch off when you go home. You still have the duty and the challenge to be at your best for your family members. There’s no switching off; only winding down for bedtime.

The spirit and the mind have to be engaging. It is hard work, but it is not unpleasant. It is important to be receptive to different opinions and new ideas. You can go through the day and learn how to adapt to them. Not everyone is in agreement, and the environment is not always going to be ideal for achieving your goals and the challenges you have to overcome. And then, when you get home there are other challenges. The kid hasn’t done well in school, the report is not so great, the mother is upset. The mother’s relative is ill, she’s not in a good mood, she’s sad. You deal with these issues as you go, and you give it your best. You can only do that with a calm mind, and an engaging spirit.

Q5. Your approach to wellness is integrative, combining eastern practices with western therapies. To what extent do you feel (or not feel) that one’s spiritual orientation plays a role in one’s state of wellbeing?

It can only be through wellness, and what we call Family Wellness. We realize that many adults live with their children in a nuclear family structure. To introduce family wellness is to tackle these challenges head on. For the family to adopt the wellness values early on is essential, because the children are the future. For the family to embrace the right values and the right lifestyle is the key to their future.

It seems a shame that we spend time, effort and resources on raising a decent human-being to be productive, one who can contribute to society, and yet when he is around 40 years old, he becomes pre-diabetic. Later on, he becomes diabetic and dependent on medication. Children should adopt wellness values early in life. Wellness and sustainability should be a subject taught in schools, as part of proper curriculum. To instill such values in the children, you need a close collaboration between the parents and the schools.

Is what the school is instilling in the children being practiced at home? If so, great. If not, the child suffers. It is going to be tough for them to make the right decisions in the future. There needs to be an ongoing conversation between parents and teachers. E.g. if we are teaching waste management or proper nutrition, what are you eating at home? What are you doing with your waste? If we can get on the same page, we can effectively tackle both non-communicable diseases and climate crisis.

Q6. The food at your resorts is a big part of the wellbeing experience. Can you share your nutritional and culinary ethos with us?

Nutrition is such a key part of the wellness journey. What you put in your mouth first thing in the morning determines how you’re going to spend the rest of the day. If you are consuming nutritious food you are starting the day off on a sound basis. Nutrition is everything.

We eat three meals, and those three meals had better generate the kind of productivity that we want throughout the day and help wind down the evening before sleep. We have to be at our best every day in order to be at our most productive. If the nutrients are not there to enable us, along with vitamins and minerals, then we’re not going to be at our best.

When practicing a wellness lifestyle, you have to consider both exercise and what sort of nutrition you are consuming. For each person it’s different. Each human being is different from the others and the program has to be personalized.

So, a dietary program for someone who is quite robust and healthy, what they need to do is eat correctly – carbohydrates, proteins, minerals to keep them going. For someone who is overweight, you should avoid carbs and sugar. For someone who is underweight, you should include protein, complex carbohydrates and the good fats to help them reach the correct benchmark.

Even in stress management, what you eat is so important. Often stress makes people eat. This is compulsive eating. They snack through the office hours and take in way too much. It is also important that if you have to snack, what kind of snack are you going for? Especially in the afternoon, when you feel hungry, or as you are approaching the end of the day, people tend to snack. Picking and choosing what you eat wisely is the key.

If you are an elderly person, your dietary program will be different from the young. It has to be food that is easily digested. The kind of exercise that you do is no longer the fast movement but something that is more aerobic, or more easily done. The food at the beginning of the day, during the day, or end of the day, is what helps you to survive it all. Nutrition is a key element.

Q7. Since you believe that “individual wellness goes hand in hand with planetary wellness.” What do you do to proactively enhance the environment at your retreats from an environmental and planetary perspective?

In our resorts, both in Zulal and Chiva-Som Hua Hin, we have sustainable practices since the beginning. At Hua Hin we have 100% wastewater treatment. We are very conscious of energy conservation. There are meters everywhere in the resort measuring our power consumption at any one time. This is an important part of our ESG program.

We always minimize our carbon footprint, and in our resorts, we try to disengage from the use of plastics, even in the accommodation rooms. The amenities for our guests, the toothbrush and the shaver are made of wood. We don’t even use a plastic tube of toothpaste. It is a glass bottle and the toothpaste comes in pellet form. These things help us to minimize our footprint.

We have had organic farms since the beginning, and everything we serve is totally organic. Our organic farms are certified by IFOAM↗ – the topmost certification in the world. We serve fresh, seasonal locally sourced produce to our guests, and we minimize our reliance on imported food.

We do a lot of nature preservation. For the last twelve years we have grown a mangrove forest in the heart of Hua Hin. You can’t just go in and grow mangroves. This is done through a collaboration with several groups. The local government had given us their blessings, the landowner gave us permission, then we got the consent from the local population through a referendum. We sought assistance from the local university to determine the biodiversity that would be best for the area.

Mangroves tend to thrive when they are grown along with other plants. What species of plants are there to help mangroves? What sorts of fish and living organisms would thrive in that environment? The university performed the research and informed us on how to create a fully developed ecosystem out of what was originally a wasteland.

After 12 years, it is now one of the lungs of the city. Mangroves absorb 4-5 times carbon dioxide than regular plants. It detoxifies the wastewater coming out of the city sewage treatment system, before it goes to the sea. It has also become a place for education where local school children can go and study the ecosystem. What are the living organisms that coexist? How fragile is the ecosystem? We hope that in the future the local population will be better informed.

We also make it relevant to our guests. How can it help them to achieve their wellness goals? With the forest we do a walk through, and some people call it forest bathing. It is located on a 7.2-acre piece of land. We have built a one-kilometre walkway around the area. Thanks to the resort’s beachfront location, we offer beach walks, hiking, yoga and meditation. You can also meditate on the hill above the mangrove forest. The hilltop has a panoramic view of the city, and you can get stretched post-exercise, after which you have a tranquil meditation experience.

Q8. Can you also tell us a little about the Preserve Hua Hin project? What is the focus of some of your community development projects?

Preserve Hua Hin is a movement. A collaboration of the private and public sectors. We get together with local government and state agencies to work on solving various environmental problems from waste management, to water management, conserving energy to minimizing the carbon footprint. We look at real-life problems within the community, e.g. the pavements are broken and need repairing so that more people are encouraged to walk, instead of using a car.

We work closely with the government, and we organize several activities within the community. One of these is a marathon in the month of May. The local people, as well as some from outside participate in the marathon. The route is quite scenic, and it goes through a green area down to the beach. We get 3000-4000 people involved every year. We don’t want to do more than that as otherwise the footprint is too much for us to offset.

Some people might say “I pay tax and the municipality would take care of that”. But the municipality has limited resources. Sometimes you have garbage on the beach because the currents swept it in, and then the tourists come and take a picture and then what does that do for the image of our town?

So, we collaborate with all the resorts and condominiums on the beach organizing a workforce to collect the garbage so that the beach is kept clean all the time. We have a regular team doing the cleaning every day. We basically support each other. The local government gives us their blessings, and we provide the resources that they lack. We complement their work so that the town is in good shape.

Q 9. Can you share some of the sustainability initiatives that you have undertaken at Chiva-Som and Zulal from an operations perspective? From a learning and development perspective, what has been the most profound impact of your training academy?

Our Chiva-Som Academy in Bangkok was initially intended to support the operations of the resort on training our therapists. Then it started to open for outside students from Thailand and overseas. People who want to open a spa, or those who want to become qualified practitioners, train at our academy.

As time passes, we realize the key role of the academy. Especially since the wellness business is growing very quickly. After COVID, we realize that the immune system is very important and everyone wants to learn how to get healthier. So, there’s a sudden demand for therapists, spa managers, and wellness professionals.

Wellness and sustainability should be a subject at school. One of the leading Thai universities has made spa and wellness part of its bachelor’s degree program. A student has to earn a certain number of credit points in wellness and sustainability courses in order to graduate.

We are looking forward to the day that wellness and sustainability becomes a subject at school. The trainers at the academy would be the frontline to go and help the schools when they decide to start.

There is an awakening and an appetite to learn about wellness and sustainability. To put it into the school curriculum, is a common sense move to help children adopt the habits early in life, right from the age of 7-8 years old, and it becomes something that you do every day. What you eat, how you manage stress, it should come instinctively.

Q10. To what extent do you see larger shifts in the landscape e.g. climatic shifts, socio-economic changes, political conflict, global epidemics and pandemics etc. having a direct impact on your business and how do you pivot from these challenges to create opportunities?

Absolutely. The changes were tremendous. Of course, events like wars impact our lives and in many places there is much suffering.

We take note of the ageing society problem, and the global pandemic has had a direct impact on the wellness business. The ageing society issue is something that is a growing challenge, one that needs to be seriously addressed.

The UN estimates that by 2050, 2 billion people will be over 60 years old in the world. Just imagine if they got sick. There is no government budget that could support healthcare for so many people. It could cripple economies.

The wellness business has already geared up to absorb this market. We need to adapt the offerings and find solutions for graceful ageing, allowing people to age well and still be productive to society because of the experience and knowledge they have accumulated. That they could advise, sit on the boards, teach, and so on.

Life for the elderly is something we need to seriously address. As for pandemics, the major concern is the body’s immune system. It’s the key prevention. You go back to the wellness principles. When people travel, they are now looking for something meaningful to their health to learn, and take back. It’s not just about coming and having a good time. Sophisticated travellers, young travellers are thinking that way. We need to develop more retreats catering to that.

Q11: Is that something you are going to be doing more about going forward?

Yes. In fact, right from child to adult to elderly – we need to look at the whole cycle. As we said, it’s a lifelong journey and we like to think that we partner with our clients all the way.

It can be difficult to strike a balance to overcome challenges. But we plan ahead, support them, and encourage them.

Q12. It took you around 25 years as a brand in Thailand to make the shift to a different geography and set up a retreat in Qatar. Do you have plans to take the Chiva-Som footprint to other parts of the world, or do you prefer to stay pure to your roots in Thailand?

We will go to the other parts of the world under certain criteria. Whenever we decide to do something in any location it has to bring value to that location. It has to showcase the best of what that location has to offer. It would incorporate things like indigenous cuisine, the traditional medical know-how, local customs and traditions. People want to experience the culture when they come. One of the ways to relax is to go out and explore the culture and meet local people. To discover something of value to take home.

Wherever we go we have to make that happen. To showcase the best local resources and talents. Finding a flower and nurturing it to full bloom.