Digging Kung Fu's Spiritual Roots

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Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page M10

The Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and classical kung fu, rises over Henan province, China, as a great, symbolic lure, the 1,500-year-old fantasy that really, truly exists.

Justin Guariglia, 33, was a student at Wake Forest in 1996, when he studied abroad in Beijing to learn Mandarin and Chinese culture. He despised the rote memorization involved in the former and set about teaching himself photography instead. Roaming the countryside a year later, he stumbled upon the shrouded verdure of Shaolin, which means "young forest." What Guariglia saw there was quite unlike Western depictions of martial art, as in the TV series "Kung Fu" and the movies of Jet Li. Eventually, he convinced the secretive monks to let him document their most sacred movements.

"That's the bamboo garden. I became enamored with the Shaolin Temple and all the kids studying at the schools. It took me five years to build up a relationship with the abbot. I lived in Asia for 10 years: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei.

"I would go back one or two times a year to visit the temple. I was meeting the monks and building up a relationship with them. After five years I asked for an audience with the abbot. I said I wanted to photograph real Shaolin kung fu and share it with the world.

"He's known me for so many years, and he trusts me and he knows my heart is in the right place. A lot of people come to Shaolin and exploit the monks. They want to see them break bricks on their heads -- the entertainment side of Shaolin -- but there's a real classical core to Shaolin, and it's very deep and philosophical. A lot of the kung fu most people see is actually wushu-based, a modern interpretation of classical Shaolin kung fu which has been turned into a competitive sport which can be scored.

"Real Shaolin kung fu comes more from the heart and is not competitive. It's like an art form. It's graceful and almost like dance. It rubs off in a very subconscious way. I practiced kung fu for three days, and I stopped and picked my camera back up. I realized I didn't have a passion for practicing it, but I did have a passion for documenting it."

-- Interview conducted and condensed by Gabe Oppenheim

Shaolin: Temple of Zen runs through Sept. 7 at National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St. NW. Call 202-857-7588 or visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/museum.