Chinese Kung Fu uses a uniform that is tight at the ankles and sometimes even at the wrists. Traditional Chinese Kung Fu doesn’t use colored belt levels (though some Western teachers might use them as a teaching tool). Īgain, much of the look of the loose-fitting gi and colored belts comes from the Japanese practice. Kung Fu practitioners wear a different uniform. This represents the yin and yang and that your heart is at peace.ģ. When entering a kwoon, bow at a 45-degree angle with your hands at your chest - the right in a fist, and the left open-palm. The word “dojo” is reserved for places that teach Japanese martial arts, like Aikido. Green Tea began to grow from the spot where he threw his eyelids and now Buddhist monks use green tea to maintain their focus during meditation. The legend has it that to keep him from falling asleep, the monk cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. Legend has it that the founder of the Shaolin order, a Buddhist monk from India named Bodhidharma, spent nine years meditating in a cave near his monastery. The founder of Shaolin Kung Fu was from India. Here are a few things you may not have known about Kung Fu and the elite Shaolin Monks. But when Jet Li made “Shaolin Shi,” it was enough to make Mao give in: the temple was rebuilt and some much-needed tourism revenue came in as Kung Fu made a comeback. The temple was mostly destroyed and stayed that way for years. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and a number of other martial arts movie stars have also made Kung Fu one of the most famous forms.Īs a part of a religious order, the Shaolin monks were persecuted by Chinese Communists during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Shaolin Kung Fu is one of the oldest and most intense forms of Chinese martial arts. This article was originally published Aug.

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