The Shaolin Temple At Mt Song And What We Saw There

Jan 22, 2013

So we have been home for a little less than two weeks.  There is so much still to report about the trip – I never described our trip to the Shaolin temple (which was amazing).  Our last few days in Beijing got short shrift including our visit to A’s orphanage which was also an amazing experience.  And I never got to share my reflections on the trip – what it brought up for me, how it felt to be traveling with children, what it was like getting to see modern, urban China for the first time. 

The balloon is about to get it.

I can’t seem to dig the pictures up and even if I could I am not sure they would be sufficient, but let me share in brief that Shaolin King Fu is FOR REAL.  When we went to visit Dengfeng outside of Zhengzhou our guide for the day told us his name was Mountain.  I took this as a good omen.  He also told us that the town had 200,000 residents, 100,000 of whom were Kung Fu students many of whom traveled from all over the world to study there.  We were all impressed.  

Photo taken from the internet,
but you get a sense of what we saw.

Despite the kitschy techno-music and flashing lights in the “official government Kung Fu theater,” the actual kung Fu demonstration by the student monks was extremely impressive.  We saw poses and moves with nunchucks and staffs banging against the floor – cool but choreographed nonetheless.  When the monk brought the 2 ft square thin sheet of plate glass out to show the crowd it piqued my interest – what is he gonna do?  Put his head through it?  The monk stood on the edge of the stage and held the glass vertically out in front of him and another monk held an inflated balloon against the glass on one side.  At this time, a third monk produced a 2” sewing needle that he showed and passed to the crowd (I guess to verify that it was real).  The monk with the needle proceeded to throw the needle at the sheet of glass.  The needle bounced off of course.  As it did after the next 3 or more attempts.  Looking discouraged, the needle-throwing monk sat down and another monk stood up, passed around the needle, and when it returned to him, proceeded to prepare himself like a baseball pitcher.  He smoothed the ground with his foot, took deep breaths, wound up and THREW.  And the BALLOON POPPED.  They then passed the plate glass around showing that it had a small dimple where the monk THREW THE NEEDLE THROUGH THE GLASS WITHOUT SHATTERING IT.  I clapped and cheered heartily and made a note to myself to Google this parlor trick as soon as I could get a good internet connection … and I found that THE WHOLE THING WAS REAL.   Some message boards say (how is that for a reference – “Some message boards say …”) it is the same principal as a high heel sinking into soft mud – if something is dense enough, with enough force it can penetrate without causing much disruption.  Of course, the monk holding the balloon could easily just be popping it with a small thumbtack, but there seems to be a general consensus among Kung Fu enthusiasts that this is for real.  And I saw it with my own two eyes and am happy to agree with them. 

-JD