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Hi all,
Its been a while since I first posted here,the system of Southern Praying Mantis holds a lot of my interest and I have also been training in a version of it called Chu Gar for some time now.
I have found a very old SPM style in the city of Kolkatta(formerly known as Calcutta) in India,that was taught in the only Chinatown in the country,a place called Tangra.It is a very unique system and is not of either the various Jook Lum lineages or the lineages descended from Lauo Suei,Chu /Chow Gar etc.
The system has its origins in the Moiyang village of Guangdong province and was taught initially by Sifu Chen (full name unknown) to the Chinese community exclusively in a school named Pi Moi.Sifu Chen learnt it from a cook who was serving with him in the merchant navy.The exploits of Sifu Chen are legendary in the close knit chinese community.He passed the lineage on to Sifu Khan Seouk Heung who in his broadmindedness opened the style to non chinese,he taught from 1975 till his death in 2000.
Sifu K.S Heung passed the style to three lineage disciples:Abhijit Mukerji,Lee Kuo Sen and Kunwar Akbar Singh.
The style has 4 empty hand forms:
1.Ki-Bu Jin or 9 Step Arrows
2.Pai Sith
3.Sine Su
4.Fa kuen
The Ki Bu Jin is the heart of the style and is very similar in choreography to Jook Lums Sam Bo Jin but with very different internal mechanics and it takes 12 to 14 minutes to complete,a very powerful form and unique.
The Sine Su for is the application form of the Ki Bu Jin while the Pai Sith and the Fa Kuen are actually one form divided into two.
The style also has some of the most advanced footwork I have seen in my 28 years of training and novices spend the first 4 months working on just that and basic punching (there are no short cuts and none are encouraged).
The late Sifu K.S.Heung also severly discouraged weight training and body conditioning as they would interfere with the mechanics of the style although his background was in hard gung.
A favorite technique is a devastating block/strike called the Choi-Chun which cuts across the body at a 45% angle,another version of it is called a Khan-Khan which is done with a Phoenix-eye fist.
Sifu Chen once knocked out 12 sailors in the U.K using just the Khan-Khan.
Sifu Abhijit Mukerji taught this style to the Calcutta Police's Riot squad and the elite Black Cat Commandos.When he started teaching them his unassuming bespectacled 5 foot 7 inches aroused derision and scorn which ended when he knocked out the biggest of the lot, all 6 foot 4 of him.He was also involved in numerous street fights and is known to have never once removed his eye glasses in any of them.Sifu Lee Kuo Sen is known for his purity of expression of the system,his rendition of the form Fa Kuen was exceptional when he demonstrated it to me.
I have shot some footage which is in the process of being edited and will share the same at a later stage,please PM me if you need more info or would like to contact any of the surviving lineage masters.
From my experience this is a very internal style and very very powerful and exceedingly rare.
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A 'Lost' Southern Mantis Style found in India
