The 1st time that I went to Shaolin temple was back in 1980. I saw only 4 monks in the whole temple. I didn't see any of them trained MA.
I still remember that I needed to use 粮票 (food ticket) to buy food in restaurant.
The 1st time that I went to Shaolin temple was back in 1980. I saw only 4 monks in the whole temple. I didn't see any of them trained MA.
I still remember that I needed to use 粮票 (food ticket) to buy food in restaurant.
Last edited by YouKnowWho; 10-13-2013 at 03:33 PM.
http://johnswang.com
More opinion -> more argument
Less opinion -> less argument
No opinion -> no argument
My old coach comes from near Shaolin, and trained there as a child - quite an interesting story, actually. He - obviously - knows the temple very well and said that although there are a lot people around who aren't really monks, nevertheless there are some "special", actual martial arts monks who train at or around the temple, but not in areas that the tourists go to. So, short answer, yes - yes there are.
Yi Long certainly does suck in a sense that he's only a low level Pro fighter and nobody special.
My point is that there's probably no real, accomplished Shaolin Kung-Fighters coming out of the Shaolin Temple and that it's all just a myth perpetuated by movies. And sadly, the closest Shaolin Monk fighter is probably Yi Long, who's probably not even a real monk. The only fighters from China that have a chance against the Thais in K-1 are the Sanda fighters....and K-1 is not even full Muay Thai neither.
The Ultimate Fighter is coming to China, so let's see what the Chinese can do. IMO, I don't think they'll even come close to the level of fighters being produced from the USA and Brazil.
And by "accomplished fighter" you mean having won in major sporting competitions?
People who actually become properly ordained Buddhist monks are doing so for religious reasons, not because they want to become top martiall artists.
It might be that by chance one or two are also gifted martial artists. However, for forms, professional wushu players are far superior to the average Shaolin monk, and for fighting, pro san da fighters are far superior to the average Shaolin monk.
This is inevitable as the pros are selected out of a vast pool of talent and provided with high level training from an early age. Shaolin is more famous for its hard qigong than for the actual high level (relative to others in China) of the monks. Still, the average monk is ridiculously higher level than the average western CMAist who is fond of saying how rubbish they are. It's all a matter of degree.
Why do you think this? China is generally pretty good at putting out quality athletes, (at least in the Olympics.) Sanda is a great standup system and they are starting to learn ground game over there....
I think once they get more serious, better organized fight circuits and tweak the training for MMA I think we'll see world class fighters come out of China...they're 20 years behind USA and even further behind Brazil on this, but I suspect it won't take them too long to catch up.
@Miqi
Who is the "average Shaolin monk"?
They are individuals with names and personalities, you know...
People like to talk about "them" in a general sense when in fact they know absolutely nothing about them individually. How can anything be said when one doesn't even know who exactly they're talking about?
. . . . . . . . . .
Greetings,
There are three major incidents that took place in the 20th century that warranted tracking as far as where the Shaolin fighting monks went.
1- The destruction of the Shaolin Temple in 1928
2- The establishment of Communism in 1949
3- The Cultural Revolution
There have been no real tracking of the dispersion of Shaolin fighting arts during these periods. I learned that there was a high level fighting monk in NYC Chinatown during the 1970's; if indicative of anything, it is that there may be clues to the diaspora contained within international Buddhist temple traditions, a very neglected area of research.
mickey
people who claim there are no "real shaolin" in china always have alterior motives, mostly claiming by coincidence they just happen to have the "real shaolin".
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