Mention kung fu and most people immediately think of those martial arts superstars-cum-actors Bruce Lee (the undisputed king of kung fu), Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Martial arts aficionados have enjoyed a long tradition of kung fu flicks that have been box office hits, starting with Bruce Lee’s 1971 ‘The Big Boss’. Another landmark in the genre is Jet Li’s 1979 blockbuster ‘The Shaolin Temple’.

But, as Venerable Yan Yin, a Shaolin monk living in Sri Lanka who practises Wushu Chan, is quick to point out, kung fu is more than a martial art and an entertainment – it is a way of developing not only one’s physical strength but also one’s mental and spiritual strength. It is much like meditation.
Ven. Yin, who has been living in Sri Lanka for the past five years, is the founder of the Sri Lanka-Chinese Cultural Centre and also Sri Lanka’s first Chinese temple, Viluvana Vihare, in Gampaha.

The monk, who has converted to Theravada Buddhism and now goes by the name Ven. Sumana, is happy to share his expertise and experiences with anyone interested in learning the traditional martial art.

When The Sunday Times met Ven. Yin last week, he had just been appointed an honorary adviser in traditional martial arts by the Wushu Federation of Sri Lanka. Ven. Yin started his kung fu training at the tender age of six. This is nothing extraordinary in his hometown, he said, where learning kung fu is a tradition. “Everyone likes to practise martial arts,” he said. “It is very natural. My uncle was a kung fu master, which was another reason I took up kung fu.”

Ven. Yin said he initially thought of kung fu as purely a martial art, requiring much physical strength and hours of hard practice. He was a weak child who often fell sick, he recalled. He took up kung fu, hoping it would help make him a “superman”.

“I knew it would help me to develop my life,” he said. So he practised hard, and his dedication and devotion led him to become a Shaolin monk. “I visited the Shaolin temple in 1991 and spent some time there. It was there that I realised that there was a lot more to kung fu than I had thought,” he said. “It is not just man-to-man fighting. Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism – they are all there in kung fu. I realised I wouldn’t reach the deeper levels of kung fu unless I became a monk.”

The legendary Shaolin Monastery, in central China’s Henan province, is famously associated with Chinese martial arts, also known as Wushu Chan. The monks there are like Buddhist monks at any Buddhist temple anywhere in the world, reading scripture, praying and meditating; the only difference is that they practise kung fu. The Shaolin Monastery has a venerable history, established as it was more than 1,500 years ago. Today the famous monastery is also a tourist attraction; unfortunately, the majority of visitors focus more on the temple’s reputation as a kung fu school than its religious traditions and practises.

Ven. Yin stresses that the Shaolin Temple is not a school but a monastery. At 17, Ven. Yin became a Shaolin monk, and spent the next nine years at this famous temple. Among many other things, kung fu embraces morality, while embodying the essential values of Chinese life and culture, most notably the concept of regarding the community above self.

By way of explanation, the monk said: “You may hate me, but I won’t hate you. But if you hate my country, my family, my community and my culture, or if you do anything to destroy and harm any of these, then I will act. We will fight to defend our culture and community.”

Kung fu is empowering, Ven. Yin said. “You feel you have the power to conquer. Kung fu and meditation are one. You feel strong both physically and mentally.” Kung fu can also be useful in a practical way, when it comes to sorting out everyday problems. According to Ven. Yin, the problems we encounter in our normal lives do not always require physical strength for a solution. “You have to solve these problems mentally, and kung fu prepares you for this. You train yourself to face life’s problems,” he said.
Life at the Shaolin Monastery is very organised, he said. “Each day each monk is given a specific duty to perform. One will clean the kitchen, another will clean the yard, and so on,” Ven. Yin said.

The monk said there was an element of truth in the so-called “magical” and transforming properties of kung fu, which is believed to give almost “superhuman” abilities to its practitioners. You can do things the average person cannot do, such as reacting and moving with lightning speed, he said. “You are stronger than the average person,” the monk says, adding that this is nothing magical.

The bell tower of Shaolin

These “magical” abilities, he said, are not to be confused with the magic and gimmickry seen in kung fu films. “That’s entertainment. It’s commercialised,” he adds. Kung fu is something that requires daily practice. “You have to practise your kung fu every day. It is a life-long commitment,” he says.

A question often put to kung fu practitioners, and one that is clearly prompted by the martial arts films, is: “How many people can a single person fight simultaneously using kung fu?”

The monk quotes the answer his master gave him when he asked the same question long years ago as a kung fu novice: “If I am fighting with people weaker than myself, I cannot say how many I could tackle at one time,” the master replied. “But if I am fighting with people stronger than me, I cannot guarantee that I can fight them in the first place. This is our philosophy.”

Even if you are a kung fu expert, you will not know how many assailants you can fight until you actually get into the fight, Ven. Yin adds. Ven. Yin has adapted well to life in Sri Lanka, and feels very much at home here.

“I even know a few Sinhalese words,” he says with a smile.