Someone told me that after the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the '60s, the Commies shut down the Shaolin Temple and all the Monks either fled or were incarcerated or worse, killed off. As the Temple decays after many years, Martial Artists worldwide started donating money to sustain its upkeep.
Then once China became capitalistic, they reopened the Temple and turned it into a Chinese Disneyland with a Shaolin Temple theme. And it’s now populated with the Chinese Wushu Team, dressed up as Shaolin Monks, doing parlor tricks to earn tourism dollars and teaching classes to anyone with a checkbook.
in the sense of real buddhist monks training martial arts, yes. the real monks dont live in the main tourist “temple”, but the outer shrines. the main temple is for making money.
as a real military fighting force with its own politial power, no, it does not fit the traditional criteria of “monk soldiers”.
Whoever gave you your information is a rather misinformed themselves. There are monks who were ordained long prior to Cultural Revolution who remained in and around the monastery and lived through the 1990’s and 2000’s, teaching many people. Some of their disciples still live at the monastery. Some of the older ones have rooms in the main yards, others live in the newer dormitories at the side and rear of the monastery. That said, currently there is a much larger number of young monks who have joined up in recent years due to the martial arts craze. But older traditionally trained, Chan knowledgeable monks are still there. Sort of behind-the-scenes of the tourist attractions, there is still regular Buddhist practice taking place. In fact, the majority of Shaolin monks aren’t wuseng. That is just a small part that gets the attention because that’s what the monastery is famous for.
The other thing is, yeah there are still monks at the temple.
But if you look to the history of the temple its allmost allways been like that.
Governement politics inside the temple, think of the 13 Monks Rescue the Tang Emperor … Dynasty (960-1279).
A good thing to know history of shaolin well is read the book, shaolin temple written by Meir shahar.
The best in it gerne, and you can find it cheap on second hand, and for the IPAD lovers epub is allmost free.
But please do not think that you will arrive there sit in the rain for day’s and suddenly a monk will call you and train you privatly in the temple or arround. THAT IS CALLED MOVIES
There are real Shaolin monks that dwell in the USA, come and go back to China actually. We had one here recently and he was more Buddhist Shaolin monk than a kung fu monk. In fact, its difficult for them when they live in USA and quite a struggle for them.
Regardless, if they decide to focus their “monk hood” on buddhism or kung fu- they all have to train in kung fu first. Its part of their Shaolin system- kung fu, mediation and buddhism. You can’t have the mind without the heart which is Chan-Zen and vice versa.
[QUOTE=Hanak;1221261]But please do not think that you will arrive there sit in the rain for day’s and suddenly a monk will call you and train you privatly in the temple or arround. THAT IS CALLED MOVIES
:)[/QUOTE]
Well…unless you cut your own arm off, then they will take you right away!!!
[QUOTE=ShaolinDiva;1221680]Regardless, if they decide to focus their “monk hood” on buddhism or kung fu- they all have to train in kung fu first.[/QUOTE]
Where did you get that idea? That’s not true at all.
[QUOTE=ShaolinDiva;1221680] Regardless, if they decide to focus their “monk hood” on buddhism or kung fu- they all have to train in kung fu first. Its part of their Shaolin system- kung fu, mediation and buddhism.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=LFJ;1221886]Where did you get that idea? That’s not true at all.[/QUOTE]
Uh… *****Diva?
Divas get to make up their own facts…that’s why they are called Divas!
[QUOTE=LFJ;1221886]Where did you get that idea? That’s not true at all.[/QUOTE]
She has some weird notions. I remember her trying to tell me once before about feeling chi fields from her master miles away or some nonsense. IIRC, he is/was a student of Yanming.
[QUOTE=LFJ;1220663]Whoever gave you your information is a rather misinformed themselves. There are monks who were ordained long prior to Cultural Revolution who remained in and around the monastery and lived through the 1990’s and 2000’s, teaching many people. Some of their disciples still live at the monastery. Some of the older ones have rooms in the main yards, others live in the newer dormitories at the side and rear of the monastery. That said, currently there is a much larger number of young monks who have joined up in recent years due to the martial arts craze. But older traditionally trained, Chan knowledgeable monks are still there. Sort of behind-the-scenes of the tourist attractions, there is still regular Buddhist practice taking place. In fact, the majority of Shaolin monks aren’t wuseng. That is just a small part that gets the attention because that’s what the monastery is famous for.[/QUOTE]
I should have made myself more clear as I was referring to the Shaolin Kung-Fu fighting monks, in a sense that they were pretty much wiped out after the Cultural Revolution. They had Kung-Fu monks and non-Kung-Fu monks at the temple. Now it looks like they have a those who joins to train Shaolin KF with or w/o the Buhdism aspect.
And since then and up to the re-opening of the temple, like in 2008 or something, there hasn’t been enough time to train any formidable Shaoling Kung-Fu fighters and most of the ones floating around are fake and really Chinese Wu Shu fighters…which actually makes them even better fighters than the Shaolin ones anyway. Like this guy, Yi Long:
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.
[QUOTE=gunbeatskroty;1252336]I should have made myself more clear as I was referring to the Shaolin Kung-Fu fighting monks, in a sense that they were pretty much wiped out after the Cultural Revolution. They had Kung-Fu monks and non-Kung-Fu monks at the temple. Now it looks like they have a those who joins to train Shaolin KF with or w/o the Buhdism aspect.
And since then and up to the re-opening of the temple, like in 2008 or something, there hasn’t been enough time to train any formidable Shaoling Kung-Fu fighters and most of the ones floating around are fake and really Chinese Wu Shu fighters…which actually makes them even better fighters than the Shaolin ones anyway. Like this guy, Yi Long:
[QUOTE=LFJ;1252353]In no sense were they “pretty much wiped out” after the CR. Have you been there?
Yi Long sucks.[/QUOTE]
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.
