Young Buddhist monks in training are conditioning themselves for lives of spiritual purity by beating the living shit out of one another, or so it seems.
Footage has emerged of a pair of child monks engaging in a bare-knuckle, fight club style boxing match in a temple in Udon Thani, Northern Thailand. The video shows the two robed, bald-headed little units laying into each other with a flurry of roundhouse kicks, kidney punches and repeated blows to the noggin, while a third child and an older looking monk referee the bout.
On the surface, this kind of brutal, Street Fighter style brawling may seem at odds with the peace-loving tenets of the Buddhist faith– but Thai Buddhist Khun Kampon, whom shot the footage, claims it’s all part of the training. “They start fight club when they’re young,” he said, subsequently violating the first and second rule of fight club by talking about fight club. “It’s a good way to make them tough.”
Asian martial arts have long been associated with Buddhist practices– monks at China’s famous Shaolin temple practice kung fu daily to discipline their bodies and their minds– and while this free-for-all flogfest looks a little more Raging Bull than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the underlying principle is apparently much the same: a hard head and a thick skin, achieved through a balanced diet of knuckle sandwiches.
Something tells us the Dalai Lama wouldn’t be havin’ any of this.
Feature Image: Exclusive Pix
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