Who taught kungfu to the monks in the Shaolin Temple?

Answer 1

It is said that Bodhidharma came from India in the early parts of 600 AD to visit the monks of the Shaolin Temples of China. Now many tales are told of how it came to pass, but what I have read, and what is most prevelent in writtings is that Bodhidharma found the monks to be in very poor health, and they could not defend themselves for roadway thieves when they traveled. So he went into the mountains and meditated on this for three years, and developed what was the begining of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is know that there was already martial arts at this time so it is difficult to tell which style was actually taught to the monks of Shaolin temples first.

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Answer 2

You also have to add time to the answers. Through thousand of years the arts have been taught, learnt and exchanged and thus developed. The monks develop the arts and enrich the techniques and styles through the time.

The source come from various parts of the world. The pilgrims who come the the temple or to China generally and the travelling monks who roam the world before return to the temple contributed a lot.

It is also enriched by various culture and various discipline of the life and professions. To name some there are what called as "old teacher technique", farmer technique, fisherman technique. If you have a chance to watch the way a fisherman throw his net to the water than you probably have a good way to understand the way to understand some particular Judo technique.

And yes animals: monkey, snake, cricket, grasshoppers, tiger, elephant. But there are also some more elegant and subtle technique that being learnt from swan and pigeon.

Even plants inspired the arts (remember those bamboo swing? or lotus palm technique? or the way the evergreen absorb the weight of snows on it leafs during winters?)

In thousand years the monks contemplated the way water runs, the wave of ocean, or even a single tickling water drop that can make a deep hole in a rock.

The last but not least: the rule of phisic. Gravitacy and momentum. The correlation between speed and weight to the impact of punches or kicks (remember those P=m.v2)? The effect of angle to absorb the impact, etc.

In sum, there is no single one who taught the arts. It is a collective effort to enrich and develop the techniques through time.

That's why it called ARTS.

Answer 3

The Indian Monk Boddidarma.

Answer 4

Lo Han. From India, A Buddhist Monk.

Answer 5

Many did, some say Bodhidharma taught them the 18 hands of lo han . Some of their kung fu came from retired military that became monks in their later years . Also some of the monks traveled and picked up fighting techniques from all around the country . This is how it grew .There is no exact evidence of when it began .

Answer 6

A monk

Answer 7

Chuck Norris!

Answer 8

They taught themselves. They come from a place where the government has all the weapons and the ordinary citizens had no defense so they developed the art of self defense without weapons or with crude weaponry.

Answer 9

they learn it from watching how the animals fight they took this and turned into there own style of fighting it is in all the history books. monkey,snake, blah, blah,blah ect...

Answer 10

Bodhidarma did.