Attacked by a Shaolin Monk at the Shaolin Monastery
July 6, 2007
I was the ripe young age of 18, backpacking through China with my childhood friend. We found ourselves at the Shaolin Monastary in Zhengzhou so deep within the Chinese countryside that we had not seen another foreigner for weeks. We started chating (in charades) with one of the monks who we assumed wanted money, but after 20 minutes of enthusiastic antics we offered him money and he refused. If you have ever been to China, you know how unusual this is, and so he automatically earned our trust.
Just as we were about to leave, he beckoned us to take a photo in front of the Shaolin temple, after which he motioned for us to sit on the temple steps. He placed my friend on the steps below me and placed my hands on my knees below his neck. We did not know what he was doing, but suddenly he began to press with both hands on my friends neck. After a few seconds, Greg sprung up with frieght in his eyes muttering “lets go, come on lets go”.
Obviously spooked, I calmed him down, but insisted on wanting to see what this monk was up to. We traded positions, myself now resting against Greg’s knees and the monk know pushing all of his weight into his hands into my neck. Just when I began to realize the foolishness of allowing myself to get into this situation, my vision began to bleed out and I helplessly lost consciousness.
Greg did not know what was happening nor for how long I was unconscious. When the monk withdrew his hands, Greg later told me that my head lifelessly slumped to my chest. Greg was frozen with alarm. The monk cupped his hand and struck me on my back, which Greg said immediately caused my head to spring back to life. I began to regain consciousness not knowing who I was nor where I was only to feel an old man striking me on the back. With wild eyes of fear and confusion, I grabbed the neck of the old monks orange robe and rose with a fist cocked ready to send him to his next life. Seeing my confused rage about to be unleashed, the monk put up his hands and cowered, beckoning me to look into the surrounding mist covered mountains. With one hand pulling the monk to his tip toes and the other ready to break his nose, I turned and stared into the fabled mountains and valleys of Shaolin.
Ok, I now know that I am Michael. Where am I? In China??? Is the only person who knows I here frozen pale faced Greg?
As reality began to sink in I let the monk go and spun around to see a closing circle of cackling old Chinese women holding money in the air. Whether they were betting on my potential beating of the old monk or trying to get us to give the monk money we coudn’t figure out, but one thing was for sure, it was time to run.
From this a pet peeve of traveling was learned: I DO NOT EVER let anyone touch me, if they do, they get the wild glare which made even an old Shaolin monk cower.
Wow, so have you got any idea what he was trying to do? Bring on some zen experience or something more sinister?
You know, the sad thing is, I think in the end it was just for money. I think the cackling old women were flaunting money at us trying to tell us to give him money.
Sad, but I think the trick was to choke us out and then somehow we would want to give him money. It doesn’t seem that effective, although I was pretty delirious after the choking.
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Hi Michael,
I just ’stumbled’ across this page and was interested to read your article as I lived in ZhengZhou throughout last year. I think the Shaolin Temple your talking about is situated just outside ZhengZhou in a city called DengFeng in the Henan province. I visited the temple a few times and found it to be an amazing place. If it is the same temple it is now popular with tourists, quite a few being foreigners.
It seems strange that any Monk would attack you for money. I say This because I found the Chinese believe in giving generously to the Buddhist religion and their beliefs, thus the Temples [and Monks] are quite well off.
I’d be interested to know when your encounter took place as maybe the recent boom in the Chinese economy has made a difference to how rich the Temples have become. It would be interesting to know the actual reason behind the attack. I’ll speak to my girlfriend later [who is from Zhengzhou] and see if she has any ideas.
Hi James,
The attack took place in 2002. What I believe happened is that the monk was using a choking trick/technique which would either spook foriegners or give them a “mystical” experience that he would then enable him to ask for money.
The part which fooled us is how long he spoke with us for and his initial refusal to take money. Anyway it left quite an impression.
Thanks for the comment!
Michael
wonderful story about the temple and tourists
Yeah, I’d like to see you try and punch a Shaolin monk with your bulky Western fighting methods. He could hit any meridian in your body and have you immmobilized in half a second. If you know anything about Gong Fu, chi and fighting monks, raising a monk to his tip toes ain’t gonna do much.
I actually just returned from studying Shaolin for 1 month in DengFeng at the temple’s Xiao Long Wu Yuan school.
Shaolin monks don’t attack people, especially tourists. The retribution by the temple and the government would be unbelievable. Knowing these guys, he was probably trying to show you something neat, awe you and make you interested in Shaolin.
You have to keep in mind the ideas of “personal space” are quite small in China and these guys touch each other constantly during training every day, so they are far more “hands on” than us Westerners.
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Few things, in 2007 there was a kung fu school in Zhengzhou, called Xiao Long, where foreigners used to come for a kung fu training and Zhenzgzhou is the capital of the Henan province, so don’t tell me that it’s so deep within the Chinese countryside that you had not seen another foreigner for weeks. It’s a huge, modern city!
And the Shaolin Temple is not there! The Temple is located in Dengfeng, two hours drive from Zhengzhou. The whole story is just based on your imagination. Shaolin monks don’t attack people. I used to train in the temple’s kung fu school, spent there 6 months, so I know what I’m talking about.
Please remove or change the picture you are using for this article. It is of my teacher and he was not part of this ‘attack’ but your use of this picture maybe misleading.
Thank you
Thanks for removing the picture, I appreciate your sense of responsibility on this issue.