Binh Dinh’s traditional martial arts closely connects with stories about famous masters who defeated many domestic and foreign martial arts talents. However, not many know how they suffered hardship when starting to practice martial arts.
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Grand master Phan Tho teaches his disciples unique techniques he dedicated his life to learn.
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Selling cow to learn martial arts
Like martial arts master Ha Trong Son, who was once called “the tiger of the central region”, grand master Phan Tho brought fame to Binh Dinh when joining many competitions. Also, he thoroughly knows how to use 18 types of weapons and Tay Son sect’s unique techniques.
Not many know that he dedicated his life to martial arts thanks to his fate and the support from his wife’s love. His first martial arts instructor is Cai Bay, a well-know master. Tho mastered all techniques Cai Bay taught him.
When Tho was 24, he joined a competition and lost. He asked his wife to sell two cows so that he had enough money to continue learning martial arts.
He then learnt martial arts from Diep Truong Phat for one and a half year until he passed away. Six years later, master Huong Kiem My received him as his disciple.
Learning martial arts from different masters helped Tho know how to use most techniques using weapons and rare skills.
Once he was defeated in a game but he didn’t dare to go home; he came to his teacher Cai Bay’s house. “My teacher’s wife loved me as her son,” he recalled. “She cried when seeing I am hurt.”
His love for martial arts requited his wife’s love and his teachers’ affections. Before drawing his last breath, master Cai Bay gave him a book in which he recorded all remedies for martial arts practitioners.
Thanks to his experiences, master Phan Tho is now also a doctor who could cure illnesses or pains that are not very serious.
At the age of 84, he is still teaching martial arts, but he also spends much more time on helping his wife to do housework.
Practicing martial arts every time, everywhere
A very young martial arts master, who was once well known at Long Phuoc pagoda, also met his instructor by accident. He is Nguyen Dong Hai. At his early age, his mother allowed him to learn martial arts from a martial arts instructor called Nam Chan.
His mother told him that he should practice martial arts for self-defense, but he was still a child at that time. He, thus, only learnt martial arts as he liked.
At Loc Son pagoda, there was a monk named Thich Tinh Quang. He always watched Hai practice martial arts every day. Several months later, he talked to Hai, “If you like to learn martial arts, I will teach you.” Dong Hai then moved to the pagoda to live with him as he had been a novice.
“I had to practice martial arts from 11 pm to 3 am many nights, even when it was raining because only when I mastered what I learnt did my teacher teach me new techniques,” Hai said. “I sometimes thought of techniques I had practiced when eating or before going to bed.”
He practiced martial arts everywhere and every time. He had been practicing martial arts until he was 19. His instructor passed away two years later.
Dong Hai moved to live at Long Phuong pagoda then and started to learn martial arts from the monk Thich Hanh Hoa. At that time, Binh Dinh’s martial arts movement was resumed and propagated worldwide. Dong Hai appeared for the first time in a documentary broadcast on a TV channel.
Master Dong Hai began to teach martial arts at Long Phuoc pagoda for the first time in 1987. His first disciples were those who had watched him perform martial arts techniques on TV.
The Long Phuoc pagoda became a hub for martial arts for nearly ten years. It sometimes attracted over 500 people who wanted to practice martial arts.
The monk Thich Hanh Hoa, master Dong Hai and several his followers became the helpers, nurturing the love for martial arts for a young generation.
Anyone who chooses martial arts as a career must dedicated his life to absorb the most ancient and valuable quintessence of martial arts taught by his teacher, Hai concluded.
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