I know this has been mentioned on and off in passing, but there didn't seem to be any real discussion of this.
All kungfu styles tend to have a muddled history, such is the nature of the beast, but LauGar seems to be more muddled than most. I am talking about the style as taught by Jeremy Yau, and spread across the country since the 70's.
(for anyone who cares, I originally trained under Kevin Brewerton in the 90's and I've trained in both BKFA and non-BKFA clubs)
The "facts"* I have seen are:
1) Lau Gar Kuen is derived from a form of boxing practiced at Kuei Ling Temple situated in Kong Sai Province in west China. It was learned from a monk on retreat from that temple by the master "Three Eyed Lau", a tiger hunter, whom we honour as founder of our style. The style subsequently became popular over a large part of South West China.
source: http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/history.htm
however:
2) The Bejing University of Martial Arts have never heard of it.
3a) Various HungGar sites claim that their style absorbed two forms "laugar gwan" and "laugar kuen" so as to stop the style dying out (implying it's died out elsewhere).
3b) Other HungGar sites claim that the "laugar kuen" is actually a MokGar form, and "laugar gwan" is actually from Southern Mantis. They are called "laugar" because the person who brought them into the style was called "lau".
4)Master Yau came here in about 1965 (i think).
He worked in various jobs, including I believe a chinese resturant.
During this time he did not really teach, but practiced either solo or with one or two others. More and more people started to get interested and the numbers slowly grew.
Then in 1973 Mike Haig (editor & founder of "Combat Magazine")and several of Master Yau's students thought it a good idea to formalise their training by asking Master Yau to setup the British Kung Fu Association.
This he did so, and with a group of his most senior students started to structure and create a more formal system. They took the training methods and the forms Master Yau taught and created the syllabus roughly as we know it today.
5) The inimation that the above implies Yau took things from other systems and adapted them for his style.
So.... does anyone have anything else to say about LauGar? Is the BKFA's LauGar the LauGar family style from the ancient temples? Did Master Yau make it all up as he went along? Could it be there are many "Lau" styles out there, not neccessarily connected?
In short, does anyone have any actual evidence or do we have to go on hearsay?
And before I get jumped on by all the BKFA lot, I'm not trying to discredit Master Yau - I'm trying to find out about where the style comes from. Lineage of all the forms, and so on.
*The reason i say "facts" in quote marks is that not a single one has sited a source so it's all anecdotal evidence, alot of it i've gleaned from what people have said on internet forums.