Kungfu, Shaolin temple, and South India
(pic courtesy: LA times)
Yeah, they have something in common. I was reading an article the other day, which basically said, the founder of the famous Shaolin temple in China, was a south Indian monk, named BodhiDharma (or Da Mo as he is known in China). When Da Mo visited this area in China, he found that the commonly practiced method of meditation - which is sitting cross-legged from dawn to dusk, and focussing/relaxing the mind, had resulted in some 'flabby monks'. So he introduced an martial art form, which was originally yoga-type of calisthenics. The monks practiced meditation and calming the mind using this art form.
The trigger article is from LA Times and can be found
here
.
And more information on BodhiDharma can be found in Wikipedia
here
.
The wikipedia article has some references which trace Da Mo from the Pallava Dynasty of South India. Pretty interesting. Incidentally, DaMo is also the nick name of most people who are named Damodaran (one of the 108 names of
Lord Vishnu
).
