Ancient Ways of Shaolin (Please Send To A Friend)
The New Face of The Shaolin Temple
WARRIOR MONK “SHI YANTI”
By Don Warrener
The new face and voice of the Shaolin Temple is Shi Yanti. This
martial arts hallmark “The Songshan Shaolin Temple” has a long and illustrious
history dating back over 1500 years. It was actually established in 495 AD to
host an Indian monk named Batuo and it wasn’t till 517 AD that Bodhidarma came
to the Shaolin Temple.
This young charismatic 34th Generation monk is in superb physical condition and his technical expertise is nothing short of outstanding. He has a flair for showmanship possibly because as a young man he travelled the world demonstrating Shaolin Gung Fu as he was apart of the famous Shaolin Monks Stage show. His love of the art and sincerity comes shining thru bright and clear.
His master Shi Yongxin a 33th Generation Shaolin Monk and the 30th Abbot of the Shaolin Temple has mandated him to spread the Culture of Shaolin world wide so his present day travels to all corners of the world has now lead him to North America and in fact Hollywood California.
In a recent sit down with this Warrior Monk we asked him what is the official opinion of Bruce Lee? To our surprise it was very positive as he explained “Bruce Lee opened the door for many to come and study Chinese Gung Fu so we are very great full to him for this.
Another interesting answer was when we asked him the
difference in Gung Fu and 
Kung Fu. He kind of smiled and said well Gung Fu is
how we Chinese pronounce the word and westerners pronounce it Kung Fu. Then we
asked the difference between Wu Shu and Shaolin Gung Fu. “These two differ in
that Wu Shu is more sport and acrobatic while Shaolin Gung Fu is old and
ancient and in fact it is a Cultural Way of Life as we not only practice the
physical techniques but we also practice Buddhism and Herbology or Chinese
Medicine. In the Temple many monks focus on the medicine and many others focus
their training on Buddhism. In my case
although I did learn the medicine but I focused my training on the technical
Gung Fu and as well on Buddhism as I spent 5 years studying Buddhism in
University including 3 years in Singapore University studying. The physical
Gung Fu is more for physical health and overall well-being.
Shi Yanti or as we called him Yanti grew up in a Gung Fu family and his father was a fanatic about training in Gung Fu and Yanti said he can not remember a time when he did not train in Gung Fu as he started as a very little boy doing Gung Fu with his father. Then after going thru a very strict selection process he was accepted as a student at the Shaolin Temple. The Shaolin Temple has a maximum of 300 monks living at the Temple and they range in age from 5 to 90 at the moment. They often take in orphans directly from the streets as well.
"This is the first of three parts on the Shaolin Temple tomorrow learn what typical day at the Shaolin Temple is for a Shaolin Monk."
