Issue 37 - Tse Qigong Centre

ShaolinUKThe Shaolin Temple is on Songshan Mountain, Hennan Province, China, and a dream to manymartial artists. It is thousands of miles away from us here in the UK. Fortunatley it is not as far out ofreach as you might think.It was an historic day for British MartialArts. An instructor monk, Shi Yan Tze,from the world-famous Shaolin Templein mainland China, was to begin histeaching program at the Temple School ofKung Fu in London’s Islington, marking theculmination of almost eighteen years ofnegotiations between The Temple School’sSifu Leung Yang Lon, the ChineseAuthorities and the leaders of ShaolinTemple.At three o’clock on theafternoon of Sunday 15th February 1998,Monk Yan Tzestepped out infront of anaudience ofover three hundredpeoplepacked into the Temple School and began toread a prepared speech in Mandarin Chinese.Understandably, a large proportion of thegathered audience were anxious for MonkYan Tze to begin his demonstration of ShaolinKungFu, all too rarely seen outside ofmainland China. What they didn’t know wasthat the Monk was actually stalling for time.Because at that same moment, a plane wastouching down at Heathrow carrying theAbbot of Shaolin, Shi Yon Xian, on a surprise,last-minute visit.Sifu Leung had made a dashto the airport to meet the Abbot personallyand now the race was on to bring the Abbotto the Temple School before any of theaudience realised they were being stalled.The journey from Heathrow to Islington wasmade in a tidy forty minutes and though thereplace, Monk Yan Tze surprised everyone bypaying respect to his master with a full kowtow,his forehead placed to the floor threetimes. Then after a brief address by theAbbot, in which he affirmed his intention tobuild a branch of Shaolin Temple in theUnited Kingdom headed by Sifu Leung YanLon, Monk Yan Tze was permittedto proceedwith his demonstration.The Monk began with a highlevel Shaolin form, not unlike a Hung-Garform, incorporating many familiar arm andleg techniques. The difference was in the rawpower display by Shi Yan Tze. Eachmovement was precise and focused and youknew that if you got in the way of one ofthose punches or kicks, you wouldn’t begetting up again in a hurry. Translating, SifuLeung told us that Monk Yan Tze wouldn’t“The Monk began witha high level Shaolinform, not unlike aHung-Gar form.”was a little restlessness among theaudience, this was more thanmade up for with theappearance of AbbotYon Xian.When theA b b o twas ledto hisbe teaching this form during his classes as itwas way too advanced. In fact, it is the formlearned by Monks just before they are calledupon to “fight” their way out of the Temple,a test that has been portrayed in countlessShaw Brothers films of the Seventies andEighties.Next, Monk Yan Tze askedfor a strong volunteer from the audience.SteelWire Mantis instructor Tony Clementsstepped up. The Monk asked Tony to hit himin the stomach as hard as he could. Using anespecially destructive Mantis hammer-fistQi Magazine 14