documentary Adventure LOTUS & SWORD - Interspot Film

F or
documentary
Adventure
LOTUS & SWORD
one and a half millennia, the monasteries at the foot of
the holy Song Shan mountain in China have been perfecting
the high art of Kung Fu. It was here that Zen Buddhism was
established, and here that all martial arts are rooted.
But the championship of Kung Fu has never been limited to the
monks of the Shaolin temple - women are also admitted to the
art. In Yongtai Nunnery, founded by a princess who had converted
to Buddhism, more and more girls and women are practising
Kung Fu with and without weapons, and the skills of Qi
Gong, in which they have already ascended to the highest virtuosity.
The nunnery has for the first time in its history opened its door
to a camera team, offering a glimpse of the training and skills of
the Kung Fu nuns of China.
AUSTRIA’S TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCERS OF DOCUMENTARIES
length
60 minutes
director
herbert fechter
dr jian wang
year
2003
format
betadigital
version
english, french, german,
italian, portuguese, spanish
completed

documentary
Adventure
LOTUS & SWORD
For many centuries, the myth and lore of the Middle Kingdom were closed to us. But gradually,
the veils of the past are lifted and we once again see what was long lost to us.
One of the last great secrets is the story of the Zen Buddhist monks and nuns living in the
monast-eries that dot the holy Song Shan peak in Henan Province. Out of this breathtaking
landscape, Chinese Buddhism – known as Zhan or Zen – emerged when Indian monks translated
the sutras into the Chinese language by order of the Emperor of China. One of these
monks, who was known as Tamo, was a religious reformer who taught his pupils to master
their physical energy (“Qi”) by meditating and observing nature. Developing the exercises of
Tai Qi and Qi Gong, he created body movements that his pupils used in self-defence and that
became known as Kung Fu.
Four of his pupils were among the founders of Zen Buddhism in China. One of them was a
woman – Princess Yongtai. Her Emperor father presented her with a nunnery near the Shaolin
temple where she lived and taught Buddhism and Kung Fu together with a hundred women.
Surviving the turbulences of the centuries and the Cultural Revolution, Yongtai Nunnery has
been freshly renovated and is blossoming to new glory. Over the past few decades it has
become a centre of physical and spiritual energy fed by the Kung Fu nuns. Guided by the
grand masters of the Shaolin temple, some of whom live in the picturesque mountain monasteries
of the Song Shan range, the nuns equal the proficiency and prowess of their male
counterparts: holistic knowledge of the secrets of nature and the human body, mastery of
breathing techniques and perfection in Kung Fu with and without weapons are passed on to
the girls of Yongtai from their earliest age.
The documentary concentrates on six female champions of Shaolin Kung Fu living inside and
out of the nunnery, their hard training schedule and their accomplished exercises. We see
Tai Qi, Qi Gong and Kung Fu raised to supreme perfection, in aesthetic harmony with the
enchanted land and captivating architecture of an ancient Chinese cultural heritage site.
For further information please contact
HEINRICH MAYER
Interspot Film-Ges.m.b.H
A-1230 Vienna
Walter-Jurmann-Gasse 4
phone: + 43 1 | 80 120-420
fax: + 43 1 | 80 120-222
e-mail: mayer@interspot.at
www.interspot.at
Coproduced by