Is it true that kung fu is indian origin?

Question

for years, i thought that the chinese were the ones to introduce martial arts and kung fu. but, from what i've read, karate and kung fu originated in india. i'd like to find out.

Answer 1

Yes it is origin from India......

Answer 2

Yea,  I've done some research so I know all about this.

It all started with an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. He traveled to China to spread his teachings on Zen Buddhism. When he found the monks were too physically unfit for his regime, he began training them in a series of exercises. Which became known as ( i believe ) Shorinji Kempo. It spread all over China, and has influenced martial arts all around.

Answer 3

thats not true it actully devoloped in Japan, I'm in karate so i know some things.

Answer 4

i always though kung fu originated in the shaolin temples where monks practised the leathal art.  I'm pretty sure thats the truth.

Answer 5

Yes. Even karate was of indian origin. It spread to japan. But it became extinct in India just like buddhism.

Answer 6

OK. Some of you touched base on some of the old "original" systems of combat, but still are missing out.

Kalaripayattu is the oldest Indian martial art dating back some 2000 years, and is what some "proclaim" to have been the precursor to Gung Fu.

Pankration dates a little farther than that to the time of Mesopotamia (approx. 5000 or later BC).

There are also records of organized fighting systems in China at that time as the guy above me mentioned. Though this is also before the Yellow Emperor  (approx. 2600BC) even though he set out to clean up and organize the country.

The beliefs that it all started from one single place are just rumor, and are an easier way of stating something that had to be extensively researched to be made clear. (Not many people wanted to do the hard work.)

Okinawa Te has had a few recent discoveries about itself that lead to it actually being older than the first popular accounts of Chinese Gung Fu.

The point and big picture here is that the only "Oldest" known organized system is that of Pankration developed in Mesopotamia/Sumeria (The OLDEST KNOWN civilization). That said the world has studied and developed fighting systems ever since there has been a need to kill for land, food, women, status, and pride. Some cultures developed faster than others and have influenced those in need and in turn been influenced by the different methods of thinking, but they were sadly... NOT the creater of everything.

I hope this helps clear things up.

Answer 7

The Boddidharma, a disciple of Mahayana Buddhism moved from India to China and founded a monastery there. His training methods are believed to have been the ancestor of Shaolin Temple Boxing whose decent styles came to be known as kung fu, wushu, and chinese boxing.

Answer 8

The Shaolin temple holds that Boddhidarma, a southern Indian monk whose home was close to TANJORE KALLAR ANND TAMILLL NADU, was the one who taught the Chinese Buddhists at the Shaolin temple martial arts.  However, the unarmed forms of Indian martial arts, and Chinese, are totally different.  Here's why;

Boddhidarma only taught weapons routines, and several Yoga exercises.  The true origin of unarmed fighting comes from war veterans who, seeking refuge from post traumatic stress disorder, went to the Shaolin temple to "purify their soul."  They did not call it that back then, nevertheless, soldiers of old knew about the nightmares, and the trauma of war, and because they did not have therapists back then, they had the Buddhist temples and monasteries instead.

Because, largely out of habit, they still practiced with their weapons to pass the time, because they were forbidden by Buddhism to use those weapons, weapons forms were thus adapted for use with the fists, rather than with swords or spears.  Indeed if you look at Karate, it is basically fencing with a straight sword, but with fists.  Combining modified combat that went from armed to unarmed, with the exercises Boddhidarma showed them, Shaolin Kung Fu was born.

So the answer is both yes, and no.  Boddhidarma got them started in it, but the martial arts he taught were largely weapons routines, few of which survive today.  And, if you look at Kung Fu routines, and Indian martial arts routines they are completely and totally different.  Martial arts are just like people's genetics; you look like your mother or father, because you carry their genes.  Okinawan Karate looks like Fujian Crane style, because Karate carries Fujian Crane style's "genes," that is, its techniques.

There is no denying that Boddhidarma pointed out the importance of martial arts training even for pacifist monks, as that was the reality and cruelty of the world.  However, he by himself did not bring all of the unarmed forms as some people believe it WAS from him however, that Shaolin Kung Fu and other arts thereafter, got the horse stance, the idea of throwing punches from the hip, and the idea of using meditation to supplement martial arts training, but what he taught ended there.  All other unarmed forms, the Chinese developed themselves.

Hope that helps.

Answer 9

Bodhidharma a Buddhist monk from India travelled to China to check on his religion there in the 6th Century. He even visited the emperor, and he told everyone that their Buddhist observances were not so good. He went to the Shaolin (Young Forest) Chan Buddhist temple to teach there. The monks feared a foreigner, so they refused to admit him. For weeks, he sat near the gate staring at the wall in a lotus meditation posture. Eventually, his gaze bored a hole through the wall, and the monks knew he was indeed a holy man, so they allowed him to enter, at last. He soon saw they were weak and could not meditate for long periods, so he taught them exercises based upon the movements of animals he had observed on his long trip. He also wnted them to be able to defend themselves without weapons. This led to the 5 animal styles of Shaolin martial arts: tiger, leopard, crane, snake and dragon. "That Guy" is incorrect. Zen is the Japanese version of Chan Buddhism, and Shorin is the Japanese name for Shaolin. I have studied Japanese Shorin Ji Kempo and the Chinese Shaolin 5 animals and 5 families styles.

Answer 10

yes...in india the call it silambam...

kung fu are from korea...

Answer 11

Kung Fu did originate from China... According to legend, the reign of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, traditional date of ascension to the throne, 2698 BC) introduced the earliest forms of martial arts to China. The Yellow Emperor is described as a famous general who, before becoming China’s leader, wrote lengthy treatises on medicine, astrology and the martial arts. He allegedly developed the practice of jiao di or horn-butting and utilized it in war.

Karate began as a fighting system known as "ti" (or "te") among the pechin class of the Ryukyuans. During the Taira-Minamoto war, some samurai from the Minamoto clan arrived in Okinawa from Japan and became allies with the Ryukyuan nobles. The samurai may have taught their new allies the martial art of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu which the pechin could have combined with their own fighting system. After trade relationships were established with the Ming dinasty China by Chuzan King Satto in 1372, many forms of Chinese martial arts were introduced to Ryukyu Islands by the visitors from China, mainly Fujian Province. A group of 36 Chinese families moved to Okinawa around 1392 for the purpose of cultural exchange. The political centralization of Okinawa by King Shohashi in 1429 and the 'Policy of Banning Weapons,' enforced in Okinawa after the invasion of the Shimazu clan in 1609, are also factors that furthered the development of Okinawan unarmed combat techniques.

Answer 12

A part of it is. Ancient Yoga techniques were taught By an Indian Buddhist Monk called Bodhidharma to the chinese Monks who were very weak. This was for them to be physically fit. The chinese monks then Intergrated this system with their Kung fu (which the chinese created) and created shaolin kung fu. And yes karate did come from a certain type of kung fu. It is unknown whether indian techniques had any influence on that kung fu (the one which karate is derived from) , therfore it cannot be assured that karate originated in india

Answer 13

the father of all martial arts is pankration, which is greek. then came indonesian silat , followed by kun tao and kung fu . isn't history fun?

Answer 14

I have heard the Devil's story, and would like to add that I have even seen some kind of traditional martial art being practised by Tamil people. So, any Indian relative of Kung-Fu is specifically South Indian, and thus quite ancient. But who can say which relative is the oldest? These things certainly go back further than Buddhism.

Answer 15

If u talking about origin of kung fu, it originated from china,

but the style of the martial arts indeed learn from bodhidarma around 500 A.D

if u talking about the origin of martial arts, no one is able to determine, which one is the first to introduce it.....

EUROPE or ASIA

coz both of them has the style on each own.....