Martial Arts Odyssey : Lai Tai(Part 1)

[leatherneckal22]

he showed u kung fu you showed him MMA :/

[max1235567]

I learned Pak Mei (white tiger) and Wing Chhun, I can see the movements you have are very much different from Bokator. The Muay Thai are similar to Bokator. Bokator are used very much in the spiritual world. I think some of Bokator forms are from Gods that taught Khmer masters. I have learned a few forms from them, too.

[quantumcranium]

Khmers..Burmese....and Thais(lana) culture got influence by the Mons... Sukhothai absorbed lana and the mons....anyway..just remember...it becomes muay when you loose your swords.....muay thai was intertwine with a swords in each hands.

[quantumcranium]

This Brooklyn monk is spreading fase info...and knows nothing about Tai speaking people....Mon...khmers....Burm­ese are from the Himalayas...they're not even true asians....the mons were the people who infuse the present s.e asiancultures.

[brooklynmonk1]

@ichibang15549 I honestly can't follow what you have written. But we know that the oldest documented depiction of muay Thai is on the walls of angkor wat, nearly 1,000 years ago. the period where thailand raided cambodia and stole masters was ayuthaia. but why is this post here on this video? This video is about Lai Tai.

[tharpanther]

i love u Antonio:)

[psiXoniK]

I know Lai Tai!!! :-D wow theres a video on the net! might try training again...

[rator123]

good job you are doing man, thanks from the czech republic.

[yinghakure]

wow nice i like the first song

[ITZNDREW]

looks like Sean Fujiyoshi from Niga HIga

[brooklynmonk1]

@ITZNDREW Thanks, so funny!! I love Nigha Higa.

[JustusScottJr]

This is my very good friend.... whats your name? LOL

[MrSugerNuts]

it doesnt look like much but i bet in a real fight he can kill

[philipcloud123]

Lai Tai hmmm.... tha ve ko.

"Lai" mean the people that's call "Lai" like me!

[brooklynmonk1]

@philipcloud123 Actually, no. Tai is for the Tai Yai people. Lai is for fighting.

[Reevenest]

I wonder if the etymology of Lai Tai is Lei tai (raised platform the chinese use)?

[brooklynmonk1]

No Tai is the name of the ethnicity. The ethnic group includs Thai, Lao and Shan. Lai means fight in Shan language. So Lai Tai means Shan Fighting like Muay Thai means for people from thailand.

[lazy702622]

@brooklynmonk1 Hey Antonio, do you think this is what the Tai martial arts might of looked like before the Tai tribes Migrated n adopted part of the khmer culture and fighting arts. Or you think Muay Thai was a fusion of there kung fu and S.E.A kickboxing or was it more likely a whole sale borrowing of Khmer boxing as a whole into Tai culture?

[KensaiZen]

@lazy702622 Muay Thai/Boran came to the Thai via Burma Lethwei, not from Khmer. Bokator is a fake version created by san kim saen. Khun Khmer boran the original version is different to what he teaches. Each nation developed in different ways. Burmese style relied more on fists, Thai more on swift simplicity, Khmer version was more fluid like silat rather than solid like Lethwei or Muay Boran.

[brooklynmonk1]

@KensaiZen If you have documentation proving that the art came from Burma please share it, because no historians have ever even for a moment promoted the idea that muay came to thailand from burma. nearly all experts agree that while there must have been fighting arts in all of the indo-china countries, khmer arts probably predate thai and we know this to be true about other art forms, such as dance, architecture and so on which became part of thai culture after they were captured from cambodia.

[KensaiZen]

@brooklynmonk1 One of the fathers of muay thai is king naresuan. He was educated in the burmese court in Burmese martial arts and the art of war. After he became king he transfered his knowledge of fighting on those around him which then was spread again. Like I said, Muay Boran resembles Lethwei much more then it does Khun Khmer boran.

If Tai martial arts is that of Lai Tai, Lanna Fon Jerng. The whole of the Thai people could not have learned it just by proximation with Angkor/cambodia.

[KensaiZen]

@brooklynmonk1 Also, we are not even including the Mon peoples and their martial arts into the mix seeing as their kingdom of dvaravati was situated where Thailand sits today. They must have had their own martial arts which would also have influences on the people that came later as their culture has on Thai culture. Ayotaya was a claimed successor kingdom of dvaravati which went on to unite all the Tai kingdoms into Siam.

[KensaiZen]

@brooklynmonk1 Lethwei also predates both Muay thai and Khun Khmer Boran. Tai kingdom of Chiang saen aka Yonok 545AD (the origin of Lanna) predates the founding of the first Khmer kingdom of Chenla around 627AD. Tai have closer proximity and earlier relation with Burma than Khmers. Tai/Thai people did not just suddenly became civilised after coming into contact with Khmers. Tai history goes back thousands of years. 

[KensaiZen]

@brooklynmonk1 Tai/Thai kingdoms were on the outskirts of Khmer territory where khmer infleunce and control was minimal seeing as cities like Sukhothai was more populated by Tais than Khmers making the uprising by Sri Indraditiya possible with minimal Khmer oppoisiton. Though if you look carefully lethwei and Khun Khmer both use animal forms :) tbh I find it hard trusting Khmer sources seeing as their lead promoter was uncovered by cambodian newspaper as a fake :)

[brooklynmonk1]

@KensaiZen Sounds like you used intuition rather than research. No one is asking you to read a Khmer newspaper. you most likely can't anyway. there is a well documented period in history when Thailand raided Cambodia and took traditional arts masters (including martial arts) back to Thailand. that accounts for similarities in the architecture, art. It also documented that some of these masters were used to train the army. You should look it up before posting again.

[KensaiZen]

@brooklynmonk1 Similarities in architecture? You mean the south indian style of architecture that was already present in Mon dvaravati kingdom? or do you mean the Tai style architecture of the Modern Wats and royal palace?

So because there is one record of khmers teaching the Thai martial arts (can you direct me to the source of this?) you will only credit it to this one source when cultural influence has been going on with the burmese kingdoms long before angkor was even established.

[KensaiZen]

@brooklynmonk1 Also 1800 years ago(one thousand eight hundred years ago), Myanmar Lethwei NATS(spirits)started already.Their names are Shin Phyu and Shin Nyo,sons of Mahagiri Nat,of pyu kingdom. Seeing as the pyu kingdom predates angkor by a good 700-800 years there was plenty of time for the Tai's to learn lethwei. not including another 600 years before the Tais/siamese sack angkor. The beginning of Thai culture is Lanna/Yonok culture. Not central culture like outsiders think.

[MrPhon1984]

@brooklynmonk1 cambodia also got their culture and belief and arts from india so dont say cambodian own it all...as much as khmer hate to admit their indian by blood...and muaythai kun khmer came from india as well and everything eles cambodian claim to own...

[12THEANVIL1]

High Antonio,

You should also check out Arakan martial art it's burmese but the head of it is located on the gold coast Australia.. His name is Robert he's burmese and interesting... met him many years ago much more comprehensive and powerful than this Antonio. no offense to there sword play it looks good but there hands are not much compared to the Arakan....

[paziFISTs]

Good example of martial arts not the technique but the attidude of does two.....Peace

[kotekotekitty]

I LOVE the jaw submission thingy idea, it could help in many real situations when grappling. Just another thing to target if other options are gone.

[GetDamage]

@kotekotekitty My way to fight against grapplers is to tiger claw the eyes as they are coming in. Breaking the fingers is also good. It's hard to grapple with brokened fingers. Once they grab a part of your body, you can target that hand. It's also hard to do submission with broken fingers and a poked guy. Something to think about when fighting multiple people. Gotta stay on your feet.

[azn0180]

you are violent :D, but I totally agree. You can't fight multiple people if you try to grab and take one of them down. They all will jump you azz.

[ashthegreat]

why do they always swipe the blade across their backs in any martial arts?

[oasissmc]

more power when the person strikes...

[pangolin9]

rawong rawong----gai jik deek dai bohn baag ong......you get caught and the sat bama will drill holes in your shin bones with an electric drill...because you martial artist.....tam dee,dai dee.......saa tuuu

[Benjodnb]

My favourite kind of music

[MDIS]

The long Machete weapon form looks more Thai and Malay rather than Chinese in style and art form.

Although the short staff does have a Chinese flavour , it actually looks and feels more Indian - as known as Kalaripayat or Silambam.

All in all , a great place to learn and understand the variations and influences.

As i would say :

Celebrate our Differences.

Rejoice in our Similarities.

[christopheclugston]

Hey Anthony I also wondered why you didn´t try to cover Krabi Krabong in Thailand. Really it´s far better than the FM.

And as always you want to know about Occidental FIghitng just take a look at my ever growing promos on YOu Tube, DVDs, articles, etc.

[insanox]

yea Americans need to know there are other ethnic groups in southeast asia that don't rule a country.You should do Cham or Hmong martial arts if they have some. I always wonder if they do.

[brooklynmonk1]

i have written extensively abut the cham, in fact if you google the word cham my name will probably come up in the first few entries. the cham dont have a martial art. but many of them practice penkak silat (many different spellings) because it is a muslim martial art

[brooklynmonk1]

Hmong, as far as i know, dont have their own martial art. but i have been lucky enough to be the first westerner ever to report on lai tai in shan state and bokator in cambodia. and then to be one of two foreigners to eran black krama in bokator.

[iseevideos123]

if cham didnt have any martial art, how were they able to fight against the khmer empire, that have bokator, and have some success?

[brooklynmonk1]

good question but i have spent time in cham communities in vietnam and cambodia and they had no indigenous martial art. in the philippines, many muslim people practice muslim martial arts, but it was exported from malaysia and indonesia. the cham came from india so maybe long ago they had kalari payatu but today they dont

[insanox]

It might of went extinct.

[iseevideos123]

no i believe there is still people out there that knows it. its just majority of them are old and dying lol.

[bb2009ut]

They had Vat and Pha Do which is linked to Cao Dai Spiritualism which is indigenous to Vietnam and has been around before Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity reached Vietnam. However the only way to learn Pha Do would be to go to Vietnam and Dr. Haha Lung wrote a book on it so he's another one connected to the art.

[iseevideos123]

yeah vat is traditional wrestling. i believe vovinam has some vat in it. theres a billion martial arts in vietnam. i believe a lot of them were lost or rare because of the past on two major occausion where the government/ruling dynasty would ban martial arts either they were obsolete or fear of rebellion.

[anhkhoinguyen]

cao dai is a modern religion...1920's.....its a fusion of islam,christiany n buddhism so how kan it be around b4 the three religions reached vietnam that doesnt make sense...try not to spread false info about my religion if you know to lil about it. haha thank you

[brooklynmonk1]

i have written several articles on cao dai and know that it started in the 1920s. i never claimed anything else. and i didnt even mention it in my video. i dont understand teh relevance of your comment.

[brooklynmonk1]

some of the tribes have martial art, like yao in thailand which are basically a chinese tribe, but most tribes dont. i havent heard of a hmong martial art. but if you hear of a cham or hmong martial art, please let me know and i will go look for it

[iseevideos123]

for hmong, i think theres txujtshajlim and Lawj Xeeb. you could find it on youtube.

i remember your article looking for vietnamese kickboxing (vo tu do) in the past. i only know theres a few teachers in france and most likely california in the vietnamese community. one particular that caught my eye is Grandmaster Quoc Dung from bestmartialartstyles in maryland but people on the new are saying the school is bs. maybe you can investigate :)

[brooklynmonk1]

vo tu do is just vietnamese martial art, as far as i know. the same as viet vo dao which i did find in vietnam. it exists and is making a resurgence. but as for the kick boxing art, it was hard to find. i will check out the hmong art you talked about.

[iseevideos123]

from what i found out. vo tu do translate to freestyle art or something like that. from the few that i spoke with, it uses a lot of elbow techniques. when i told my father that i wanted to learn it, he told me not to because its dangerous. i could kill some one or even break my bones and should be learn when young.

i checked out your video on thieu lam. up until now, what i researched kept stating thieu lam is chinese shaolin. monks left for vietnam to escape the chinese communism

[iseevideos123]

also vo tu do was the only name i could find that is linked to vietnamese kick boxing when searching for it. the french call it boxe libre vietnamienne or just libre. i did find a few source stating it almost a year ago.

[anhkhoinguyen]

Vu tu do IS vietnamese kickboxing like muay thai but ours(viet) came from the khmer arts which came from the  khmer krom area(south vietnam). You wont find any masters in vietnam kuz all the masters are living in america n france LOL most of the styles been absorbed in into sino-vietnamese styles one that still looks like bokator is NHAT NAM theres some sites online but in french check it out. btw my family did votudo back in vietnam.

[brooklynmonk1]

if you can tell me where to find this vietnamese kickboxing i would love to feature it in a video.

[bb2009ut]

Cao Dai Pha Do is a vietnamese martial art.

[brooklynmonk1]

no cao dai is a religion started in vietnam in the 1920s in which Victor hugo is one of the holly trinity. it combines elements of catholicism and buddhism.

[anhkhoinguyen]

lol that reply about cao dai was to bb2009ut!!! not you buddy! so i duno why u reply to it........ but the votudo one was for you tho. lol

[madmax797]

'this is my very good friend '"whats your name"' LOL

[radiatorius21]

yeah :DDDD

[brooklynmonk1]

sorry i dont know what DDDD means.

[yuenj01]

haha, dats funny!!! XD

[dannielpreto]

@madmax797 In TV it's nice to have you introduce yourself. Maybe he wanted him to introduce himself.

[DIEGOKEN242]

Very similar with Silamban

[8dahar1]

Dude!! You need to pan out and show his legs and footwork!

[hlwanmoe1981]

I want to know about you more and more. I guess...u r...ex-m_l_i_t_r_.

[saladin360]

Good video. And it's a realy nice intiative from you. Bonne vidéo, et c'est une trés belle initiative.

[itotallyforgot]

so you travel around and film martial arts videos?

[brooklynmonk1]

yes

[godspeed18]

nice video and thanks for bringing awareness to burma. don't worry about all the negative comments you may recieve. good job!

[brooklynmonk1]

just curious, which country do you live in? i have filmed in a lot of countries. the point of the video wasnt to show that i am good fighter, but to promote the martial art of a people who being driven to extinction. perhaps with more education, you could someday develope a compassionate world view.

[khmoozi]

Great response, too bad not everybody shares the same views. I'm of Khmer descent and I really like what you're doing with these various martial arts that are facing extinction. Keep up the good work!

[whackoes2]

white man..if u come to my country and u say ..do u want to fight me?.b4 that tell ur mom she not going to see u anymore...

[mhuber3483]

i cant stand the sound of this guys voice

[ldkfsldkgh]

fuck u man

this clip is piece of shit

[brooklynmonk1]

wow, what didnt you like about this video? also i checked your site, you seem to ahve joined two days ago and havent posted any videos yet. kind of strange.

[Boichuahsang]

lol,,, u're like," this is my very good friend,, what is your name?" lol..

[brooklynmonk1]

thanks for the laugh. you are right, when we did the first video i forgot his name. but we have been friends for nearly a year now. Kawn Wan is one of mjaor heroes.

[Boichuahsang]

That happens.. thanks again for the video bro.. U must be undefeatable by now eh?

[brooklynmonk1]

i am very defeatable. but i like what i do, sharing these martial arts with the world. but most profesional fighters could probably roll right over me.

[HerMajestysFinest]

Antonio you always post awesome videos!!

[MuayThai28002]

hey brooklynmonk, i live in WI. have you ever been there or done a demostration?

[Trusten1984]

Shaolin Kung Fu, tiger, cobra !!!!

[brooklynmonk1]

Pray for the Shan and all people of burma in the face of a cyclone and at the hands of the junta. PLEASE ask your congressman ask your local government to intervene. people are dying by the minute and the world's inaction is murder

[9ninja]

Free Shan People!

[theshadowboy607]

that's ur video?

[brooklynmonk1]

i dont understand your question: Thats ur video?

yes, this is my video. i thought that would be clear since i am in it and it has my name on it and it is on my chanel.

[theshadowboy607]

so u r in it ;P

i just added u on facebook remember?

[theshadowboy607]

I'm askin cuz i see "Martial Arts Odyssey" on other videos that i thought this is a tv show.

anyway, smooth forms!

[brooklynmonk1]

yes i own martial arts odyssey. it is a show about me travelling trhough asia, learning different kinds of martial arts. if you watch all the episodes, i am in all of them.

[theshadowboy607]

cool, I'm Leung in facebook..

(dun mention what my names is lol)

[brooklynmonk1]

cool i am happy you found me. you are awesome. hong kong is awesome, shanland is great Kawn Wan is my hero. life is good.

[theshadowboy607]

*name

[icp423]

Fantastic. The Lai Tai moves were so graceful and quick.

Thank you for bringing more Martial Arts Odyessy episodes for public viewing and giving local people a chance to show the world what they can do - David

[nangmone]

VERY IMPRESSIVE! Thanks, Antonio and Gorn Wann.