Word: martialled
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...kung fu, for which the temple was famous. Daily exercises sharpened both his physical and mental control: 30-minute handstands were followed by meditation; bare-handed wood chopping was a prelude to chanting sutras. "Buddhists believe in reincarnation," Yan Ming says, "and I figure I must have been a martial artist or a monk in a previous life. It all felt very natural to me." By the age of 17, he could dangle a 23-kg weight from his testicles (a practice intended to perfect his ability to withstand a full-force blow to the groin) and deflect...
...When a young state-trained Beijing martial artist named Jet Li arrived at the temple in 1980 to shoot a movie, Yan Ming "barely noticed him." Two years later, none of the monks could afford to be so aloof. Shaolin Temple, the film that made Jet Li, remade Shaolin. Suddenly the temple was swarming with visitors?both tourists and wannabe Jet Lis. The Chinese government, now aware of Shaolin's lucrative allure, resolved to rescue it from its exile in ideological ignominy. Crumbled buildings were resurrected. Secular martial-arts training academies sprang up around the temple's walls to cater...
...spruced-up shrine with a local guide well-versed in its elaborately embroidered history. Picturesquely decrepit old-timers man donation boxes at each stop along the way, and then it's off to buy tiny brass Buddhas and plastic prayer beads at stalls crowding the temple's gates. For martial arts displays, a lucky visitor might spot a young boy in a monk's robe willing to perform a trick or two. "Shaolin," as American martial artist Brian Gray wryly puts it, "has become kung fu's answer to Colonial Williamsburg...
...real action is a little way down the road, at more than 60 martial-arts training schools. Fields bristling with rows of corn give way to a landscape of young boys?often several hundred to a class?moving in eerie synchronization as they kick and punch their way toward dreams of stardom as martial masters or celluloid action heroes. Most of the more than 20,000 students will return home after a few years to humble lives as security guards or construction workers. The fortunate few will be chosen by the abbot as monks, earning the Buddhist surname "Shi." They...
...wanted to restore Shaolin's bucolic backdrop, he bulldozed most of the village surrounding the temple. That took serious clout: more than 1,000 people saw their houses, shops and schools demolished on only two days' notice. Mrs. Zhang, a mother-of-two who rented out rooms to visiting martial arts students, says she too wants the temple to look pretty for visitors but, left to bivouac on what used to be her living-room floor, she tearfully deems the project "obviously un-Buddhist." Yong Xin is less imposing when it comes to Shaolin's intangibles. If, as he claims...