Under the moonlight, in a village somewhere in the Golden Triangle, the Ka-ren Shaman moved slowly and methodically. He was showing us the movements taught him by his Shaman, which had been passed down through the tribe for generations. The Shaman moved strikingly similar to a Tai Chi master.
The Golden Triangle is a roughly drawn geographic area that overlaps the borders of three countries: Myanmar in the west, Laos in the east, and Thailand in the south. This area gets its soubrette from its most profitable export, the golden excretions of the poppy—opium. The terrain of small brown mountains and narrow forested valleys is ideally suited to guerilla tactics. In the past this incomprehensible landscape acted as a barrier against the encroachments of the Burmese, Chinese, and Cambodian empires, allowing the area’s indigeonous hill tribes to maintain their own autonomy. More recently, the triangle’s remoteness continues to keep much of civilization at bay. Both Buddhist and Christian missionaries have failed to convert but a small number of the people away from their ancient animist beliefs. The Shaman or medicine man still plays an important role in the life of the isolated villages. In 1987 the author visited with the Ka-ren in one of the more remote areas of the Triangle. There he was fortunate enough to spend an evening with a Shaman and witness his spirit dance. It was there that the connection between this tradition and that of the Chinese martial arts seemed to meld.
Tai Chi has often been described and written about as form of meditation—a moving meditation. The purpose of meditation is to alter one’s consciousness in order to achieve a variety of goals from relaxation and healing to extending one’s lifespan and many even believe that it helps develop supernatural abilities. The picture that most often comes to mind when we consider meditation is that of the Yogi, the Buddhist, and the Taoist, sitting cross-legged in a temple. The key ingredients are silence, stillness, and solitude. Contrast this image with one of the continually flowing and sometimes explosive movements of Tai Chi, and it would appear to be the antithesis of the conditions needed for meditation. From where then did this unique concept, the linking of physical movement with an altered state of consciousness, originate?
The five elements and their associated heraldic animals represent an ancient knowledge of how heavenly forces could be manipulated to affect earthly destinies. The central ritual of Taoist magic consists in the ability to call up the forces of these spirit generals and indicates that the heraldic animals are indeed the essence of supernatural powers.
The Chinese Pau Kua, Ong Hean-Tatt
According to his book, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Eliade recounts that a Shaman must from time to time perform a ritual known as the Spirit Dance. Well known among native Americans, accounts of this practice also date back 4,000 years in Chinese records. During the Spirit Dance, the Shaman moves in imitation of his animal spirit to call on its powers. It is said that the animal spirit actually takes possession of the Shaman’s body and imbues the Shaman with superhuman strength. This principle is also mirrored in the martial arts. Performing the movements of Tai Chi is said to generate a spiritual energy—Chi. Like the Shaman’s infusion from his animal spirit, Chi also bestows superhuman strength. Could it be that performing the stylized movements of a Tai Chi form is based on the ancient Shaman’s practice of dancing the spirit?
The Ka-ren belong to the Thai linguistic group whose origins lie in southwest China, possibly Yunnan or Szechwan. In the twelfth century the Mongols drove whole populations in China southwards. The social upheaval this caused helped to bring to an end to the fabled empires of Pagan and Angkor. The Thai tribes that had been displaced southwards initially settled in the wilderness hill country that bounded these two empires, but when Mongol incursions and civil wars finally destroyed the kingdoms, the Thai came down from the hills and established their own kingdom on the ruins. But not all the tribes came down from the hills. While their cousins went on to found the Thai kingdom, others chose instead to remain in the uplands, living a lifestyle little changed over time. Could the practices of the Ka-ren Shaman be a time capsule of an archaic Chinese martial arts system as it existed a thousand years ago? If so, would this mean that the connection between martial arts and Shamanism was closer and much older than we thought?
While there are several similarities between the origins of martial arts systems and the Shamanic tradition of the Vision Quest, it does not imply that practicing Tai Chi is a form of spirit possession. What it does is suggest is that some of China’s most ancient traditions may be the source, inspiration, or template from which the more refined disciplines, such as Tai Chi, evolved.
So the next time you go out and practice your Snake Creeps Down and Crane Opens Wings in the moonlight, know that not only are you continuing a millennia-old tradition of martial arts, but a tradition that quite possibly goes back through the mists of prehistory to the dawn of mankind itself.
