Muay Thai claims to wipe out Shaolin Temple, media hype?

Media: Thai Kick-Boxing challenges Chinese Kung Fu

Five famous professional Thai Boxers offered a challenge, claiming that they wanted to "wipe out the Shaolin Temple" just before the 2009 Chinese Kung Fu vs. Professional Thai Kick-boxing Competition held Dec 19 in Foshan, Guangdong province, the hometown of late action star Bruce Lee.

"Shaolin Kung Fu is a lie by these monks to Chinese Buddhists, and Chinese Kung Fu is nothing compared with ours," said one of the five Thai boxers.

But Shaolin responded by saying the provocative words were "ridiculous", refusing to reply to the "secular challenge".

Zheng Shumin from Shaolin Temple said the temple is a holy Buddhist place where monks' primary concern is Zen practice and they would not get into contests with secular people.

"We receive so many challenges like this every year, we just don't want to reply," Zheng said. "We think this is hype from the Thai boxers and the organizers of the competition."

"In the history of Shaolin Temple, we never challenge or agree to fight others," said Zheng.



Emei director stands up in defiance

However, followers of Emei Kung Fu, another important school of martial arts in China, considered this a challenge that "any Kung Fu practitioner with a sense of justice should face."

Wang Jian, director of the Emei Martial Arts Association, and his senior disciple Huang Lin, entered the contest "to let the Thai boxers know that Chinese Kung Fu is never easy to beat."
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