Visit the Lao Shaolin Village from 2012 in Laos

Background

From India, to China, to Indochina.

From 500 AD

The Shaolin Monastery was originally built when Bodidharma went to China about 1500 years ago. Bodidharma, the "Black Monk", brought Buddhism to China from India, and he founded the Shaolin Monastery to help his disciples keep fit & healthy.

Over the centuries, to practice their reflexes, the Shaolin monks would wrestle & spar like warriors. The temple soon became a hotbed of the most highly skilled soldiers in the world, with no political agenda, just practicing their art in peace.

The temple was fully self-sufficient, growing crops and rearing animals like in a farm. Orphans were sent there for refuge, and the local communities gave charitable donations.

~ 1700 AD

A few hundred years ago, China was invaded and occupied by Manchu (Mongolia-related) tribes from the North China border regions. Chinese Kung Fu was outlawed and the Shaolin monastery was an enemy of the state, being the only likely force to overthrow the Manchus to replace them with the more widely appreciated native-Chinese "Ming dynasty" government.

The Shaolin Temple was as big as it had ever been, with families now sending their children there by political motivation, and the Manchu government was scared. Each time it was attacked, the monastery survived, so the government sent in spies to burn the temple down from the inside while it was attacked from the outside. Five grandmasters escaped, along with many younger disciples.

Today

The Shaolin monks that we see in the west today could have inherited their skill from any level of surviving disciple. On whose shoulders does the biggest chunk of the Shaolin legacy remain today? To whom did the surviving grandmasters pass on the most useful moves?

To find out more, visit the Lao Shaolin Village, from 2012, in Laos.

Training Camp

We run an open Shaolin Kung Fu training camp for visiting martial artists to boost their skills considerably over the course of a few hours, or days, or weeks for dedicated martial artists to master the moves as we do in a lightheartedly persistent way.

We won't only be welcoming the every day martial arts enthusiasts and tourists who want a bit of fun. We also expect to have governments sending their army generals here for the weekend, because it genuinely will be the best place to practice empty handed combat in the world.

Timescales

You can spend as long as you like practicing martial art with us in Laos. Half an hour is usually enough to quadruple the skill of the average karate "black belt".

You can pick & choose your syllabus to suit yourself, and it generally takes this long to learn each skill:

How to block a single, fast, untelegraphed punch, with ease...

~ 5 minutes

How to block multiple random punching combinations, blindfolded...

~ 1 hour

We run a year-round training camp where you can hang out with us at your leisure. But for westerners paying short visits, to guarantee plenty of timely tuition, we highly recommend enrolling on a structured course for groups or for individuals.

Charity

The Lao Shaolin training camp is home to an uncapped number of Lao orphans. For each new child who arrives at the camp, we provide healthy food, comfortable clean clothing, and we help them to build their own hut in the village. The camp is essentially a side-village of orphans.

And of course, we all practice kung fu! This gives the children a fun activity to get involved with, for entertainment and for exercise, and to help them fight off any kidnappers!

The orphans at the camp are also taught some basic English, and Chinese in two dialects, as well as their native language, Lao. English is of course the international business language; and Chinese is nice to know as China is our neighbour, the giant country down the road.

Gift Shop

We run a gift shop where the orphans can sell their drawings & paintings to any visitors who may feel inspired by such creative artwork from lao orphan children.

We also have a good supply of casual Lao Shaolin clothes, and these are also sold in the gift shop to help visitors remember & share their experience.

Shaolin around the world

The Shaolin monastery has a good reputation all around the world. Click here for links to various Shaolin kung fu schools & organisations, which are not all the same, but all claim affiliation with the Shaolin monastery in one way or another.

Orphanages in Laos

• Luang Prabang Government Orphanages & Ethnic High Schools
• SOS Children's Villages
• Deak Kum Pa Orphanage

Support the Lao Shaolin Village

Please stick our badge on your website or blog, to show some support for the new Lao Shaolin monastery, and claim your day of free kung fu tuition next time you visit our village in Laos!

Click here for badges and HTML code »

Sponsorship opportunity

This could be one of the best charity projects you ever get involved with, because it's built from the bottom up in a true grassroots way.

It's likely to be a huge tourist attraction, and a huge talking point around the world. By sponsoring the Lao Shaolin Village you could name the temple in the centre of the village as the "Your Brand" Shaolin Temple.

An investment in the new Shaolin temple is an investment in an icon of oriental culture. At a time when Asian countries like India & China are bailing out the fluctuative economies of the West.

A Tribute to Michael Jackson

In his final days, Michael Jackson spoke about his dream – a huge hospital for the world's orphan children. The Lao Shaolin Village was founded with the same kind of vision.