What 'Hallmarks' Tibetan Kung-Fu?

[Steven T. Richards]

Any thoughts on this, Tibetan Pai people?

There is a huge diversity as I see it in Tibetan Kung-Fu. A similar amount to that in Wing-Chun and SPM. Those systems argue a lot about what is Kosher in their Pai. What about Tibetan arts?

Do some things HAVE to be present? If so what are they?

[David Jamieson]

The Hallmark of tibetan martial arts is their rarety.

There just ain't much of it around.

They have LamaPai, white crane and Lions roar.
good luck in finding a fully trained teacher in any of these.

Tibet was sealed shutr for the most part by the PRC in 1950.
The Martial styles that were there were not widely practiced to begin with and what can be found in the west is pretty hard to find.

Chinese martial arts are more abundant but Japanese martial arts and Korean martial arts are everywhere.

peace

[HopGar]

Hey Kung Lek, I'm a student of a Tibetan MA. You need the long arm punches (pau choi, chin choi, kaap choi, chai sen, etc.) and the long blocks as well as the open hand grabs.

[David Jamieson]

tibetan martial arts are pretty interesting. because of their rarety and because of their similarity to chinese martial arts,and buddhist martial arts in particular.

to me, this is indicative of a link between the chinese and the tibetan martial arts which are similar to each other. the tibetan arts do have the long arm techniques, but they cover all ranges ultimately from the few things i have seen regarding the practice of them.

so i think the martial arts links are via the traveling buddhist monks coming and going from monastery to monastery.

not necessarily to either china or tibet "first", but buddhist martial arts from within temples they were developed and practiced in.

not saying there isn't -any- of the tibetan arts about. just saying it's not abundant.

peace

[HopGar]

well yeah they are rarer than CMA and definitely more rare than JMA and KMA, but thats besides the point. I think what was being asked was what parts of the system are integral for it to be Lama Pai/Hop Gar/ Bak Hok Pai, etc. I dont think being rare has anything to do with it. I mean, you hjave styes that are closed family styles and are probably unheard of (like Chein Hung Kung Fu - Its a tiger/crane style), so Lama Pai is just one of many, not necessarily special b/c of it being rare.

[Steven T. Richards]

Hi Kong,

Yes, you were right, that was what I was asking. It seems to me that there are so many variations in Tibetan Pai, and yet I'd say comparitively little '*****ing' compared to some arts - over just what is 'kosher'.

I asked a similar-ish question over on the Wing-Chun forum under a thread 'WC and Mantis' - not saying that Wing-Chun can get *****y;) That question came in a few posts into the thread and asked what constituted then 'essence' of WC. I may have been expecting too much, but many of the replies were based around very imprecise and mystical language/ideas and overall did not give the impression that many of the posters could articulate any real understanding of their art.

I've seen a huge variation in Tibetan systems, and, where politics intervenes it's usually within very closely related branches of the discipline, rather than 'between' more distantly related ones, as for example between Pai who call themselves Lama, and those that call themselves 'Pak-Hok'.

They all seem to share the same basic principles however, even if differently applied at times.

I was moved to ask the question about what Hallmarks Tibetan Kung-Fu because reading the various threads and posts here on KFOL it seemed that variation on a common root was a generally accepted thing - the differences being in the application.

So, I wonder then, when is a Pai NOT Tibetan ?

Cheers,

Steve.

[diego]

fighting arts are like, I'm wondering How would you describe japanese styles compared to styles in china or india.

how differant would a senior pekkwar monkey stylist look compared to a senior taekwondoist???.

the only type of real differances i can think is if a master developed his style in harsh weather high altitude mountainous range in tibet or he developed his art on houseboats in the tropics of thailand,my thinking the application would be the same but his form maybe more hardcore if developed in tibet,from the simple fact he has ten pounds of clothes on and on the boat he wears a sarong.
But what do i Know.