Karate or Muay Thai?

[Babak agha]

^ Punches and elbows to the head are not allowed in Karate, not because they don't have technics for it or don't train with it. It's because if you master them correctly, one punch to the head (without gloves) should be deadly.
Plus you can find any type of fighting in Karate, it doesn't have strict rules or boundaries. Everything is allowed, however because it's a respectful art, most of the deadly technics aren't aloud in a match.
There are even technics for poking ones eyes out, so Karate definitely has technics for elbows or knees to the head, or any other place for that matter. It's just not that 'Javan Mardane' to do so in a sparring session, and you probably will get a heavy beating in the next sparring session from your sensei if you did.

[Bluez]

^ Punches and elbows to the head are not allowed in Karate, not because they don't have technics for it or don't train with it. It's because if you master them correctly, one punch to the head (without gloves) should be deadly.
Plus you can find any type of fighting in Karate, it doesn't have strict rules or boundaries. Everything is allowed, however because it's a respectful art, most of the deadly technics aren't aloud in a match.
There are even technics for poking ones eyes out, so Karate definitely has technics for elbows or knees to the head, or any other place for that matter. It's just not that 'Javan Mardane' to do so in a sparring session, and you probably will get a heavy beating in the next sparring session from your sensei if you did.

Having come from a kyokushin karate background, I can tell you it is probably the most intense and extreme kind of karate. The conditioning and sparring (kumite) is very unforgiving and coming home having dinner with ice packs around legs and feet were not uncommon for me, so I have no doubt about how brutal karate is.

Kyokushin karate used to have face punching in the beginning while its founder, Mas Oyama, was still alive. But due to many injuries and broken bones resulting from hitting to the face with a bare fist, he decided to change the rules and exclude hitting the face with punches and elbows, both in the dojo and in competition. The reason for this was he believed that using gloves went against the essence of a full contact sport. So today, while knees and kicks are fine to the head, punches and elbows are now.

Kratate is a bloody tough martial art, especially kyokushin, but I guess everyone is different. I like that aspect of muay thai that is all rounded, sparring with gloves on to practice head strikes and defending against them too. Others like the traditional and spiritual quality of karate, and that is what gives the art so much power in front of other arts, even more so that muay thai. I doubt you will see many muay thai fighters being able to break 6 blocks of ice, smash multiple baseball bats with one kick, and the training of kyokushin alone speaks volumes, training under freezing cold waterfalls, jogging in snow, etc. It's spiritual but brutal in training and the kyokushin moto is never give up. That brutal training doesn't just harden the knuckles and shins, it hardens the spirit and really turns a person in a fighter, more resilient and tougher spiritually. Not to mention it is extremely calming.