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Most of us have seen highly-skilled Shaolin monks in movies, where they punish their opponents with an array of slick moves. Well, in a recent kung fu boxing championship match in Guangdong, a Chinese man claiming to be a Shaolin monk was unceremoniously knocked out by his opponent in under two minutes. The self-claimed Shaolin monk, Shi Yongjun, was up against a boxing amateur known as Ah Jun. The match took place at a shopping mall in Guangdong last Friday (April 7), reported Chinese media. Among the participants were professional boxers, traditional martial artists and even influencers. Videos of Shi's...

Song Yadong was so obsessed with Chinese martial arts that he convinced him mother to pack him up and send him off to learn at the feet of the famous kung fu masters of Shaolin. He was just 9 years old at the time. "I had watched a lot of kung fu movies, so I wanted to be like my heroes, like Jet Li," said Song. "I went to Shaolin and I trained, getting up each day at 5am. It was harder than I ever expected." A decade later and Song's thirst for action has led him into the ranks...

A Chinese rafting attraction has established a team of bikini-clad lifeguards to ensure the safety of its visitors and accompany solo tourists to enjoy the water sport. To become a member of the 'Goddess Lifesavers' at Gulongxia Rafting in southern China, candidates must wear bikinis and combat kung fu masters before being recruited. Pictures emerged from the media showed a team of keen applicants practising martial arts skills with monks from China's famous Shaolin Temple on June 17 at the attraction in Guangdong Province, reported the People's Daily Online.

Members of Burma’s Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse. “You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a...

First paragraph excerpt: Of all the moral precepts instilled in Buddhist monks the promise not to kill comes first, and the principle of non-violence is arguably more central to Buddhism than any other major religion. So why have monks been using hate speech against Muslims and joining mobs that have left dozens dead?

Shaolin Monks Fight to Protect the Temple's ReputationMonks of China's famed Shaolin Temple, which is commonly considered the birthplace of Chinese kung fu, a unique combination of Buddhism and Chinese martial arts, have been more and more aware of safeguarding the temple's reputation by legal means. "The Shaolin Temple is an important piece of cultural heritage for all human beings. To protect it, we must propose draft legislation to ensure appropriate action," said the abbot of the Temple, whose religious name is Shi Yongxin. Located in Dengfeng County in central China's Henan Province, the Shaolin Temple was built in the...

Sat Jan 4,12:23 PM ET World-famous Shaolin monk warrior group from central China's Songshan Shaolin Temple perform Hard Qi kungfu named 'Lying On Spears' during the Shaolin Charity Tour in Kuala Lumpur Saturday, Jan. 4, 2003. The Hard Qi kungfu is one of the Shaolin external kungfu works by directing the inner Qi to a certain part of the body to make this part produce extreme power. (AP Photo/Teh Eng Koon)

<p>BEIJING — Don't mess with the monks. The monks of the Shaolin Temple want the world to back off a little. And they're hardly the sort of monks you want to agitate.</p> <p>With the claw of international commerce at its door, the Buddhist temple with the martial-arts tradition made famous by dozens of kung fu movies is fighting back — and not with its hands and feet — to safeguard the Shaolin trademark from opportunistic marketers.</p>