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Monks and martial arts: When people withstand spears and fly through the air

 

I should start with a disclosure: That’s not me. Not even years ago.

In 2006, photographer Dan DeLong and I dropped by the University of Washington to watch some visiting Shaolin-trained monks give a martial arts demonstration.

They impressed a huge crowd by soaring through the air, twirling, bouncing and kicking. In short, good, amazing stuff.

It probably helped that most of the monks were either in their teens or twenties. But their training and discipline were evident.

The above photograph has never been shown publicly, at least to my knowledge. The next day’s print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had limited space and featured the image after the jump.

 

 

I never inspected those spears that the monks used to hold that one young man up. They could have been made of some type of special material so the tips would not hurt him.

But my hunch is that they put them under special points of his body, places where they knew there was strength. Obviously, he was in excellent physical shape.

Dan, thanks for sharing the incredible photographs with me. 

You can visit Shaolin Temple – one of the major birthplaces for martial arts - in Henan province.

Just keep in mind: It’s a tourist attraction. There are many training schools directly outside the temple.

When I visited, I bought a ticket and watched an introductory movie.

It showed a monk squat and use his teeth to pick up the end of a wooden table. He walked with the table in his mouth and other monks picked up cups of tea from it.

Other scenes showed monks standing on their heads. Another shot showed one withstanding the force of a wooden log getting rammed into his stomach - courtesy of other monks.

The Web site, Shaolin.com, gives an explanation similar to what I heard of how Shaolin-style martial arts began.

An Indian Buddhist monk, who went by Tamo (or possibly Damo) in Chinese, had arrived at the temple and observed other monks:

Most of their routine paralleled that of the Irish monks of the Middle Ages, who spent hours each day hunched over tables where they transcribed handwritten texts. Consequently, the Shaolin monks lacked the physical and mental stamina needed to perform even the most basic of Buddhist meditation practices.

Tamo countered this weakness by teaching them moving exercises, designed to both enhance chi flow and build strength. These sets, modified from Indian yogas (mainly hatha, and raja) were based on the movements of the 18 main animals in Indo-Chinese iconography (e.g., tiger, deer, leopard, cobra, snake, dragon, etc.), were the beginnings of Shaolin Kung Fu.

I’ve included an impressive video clip from a guy named Ben, who lives in Seattle. He was in the audience that day at the University of Washington.

Luckily, he had his video camera. It’s popular online, based on the number of people who have viewed it. Ben, thanks for posting it.

 

 

UPDATE: I should note that Bruce Lee, known for his stellar martial arts skills, once lived in Seattle. His daughter told me last year that his “happiest times” were in the Emerald City.