Mà Chung Lama Pài - Tibetan Kung Fu

Tibetan White Crane (西藏白鶴拳, "Tibetan White Crane Fist"), also known in Cantonese as Bak Hok Pai (白鶴派, "White Crane Style"), is a Chinese martial art with origins in 15th-century Tibetan culture that has developed deep roots in southern China. Tibetan White Crane became so established in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau by the twentieth century that it was accepted as a local martial art in that region. From there it has spread around the world.

Lama Pai (喇嘛派) and Hop Ga Kuen (俠家拳) are closely related branches of the same lineage descending from the same original art, which the founder called Lion's Roar (獅子吼). Tibetan White Crane played an important role at a key pivot point in Chinese and worldwide popular culture, when a 1954 charity match between a master of that art and a master of t'ai chi ch'uan attracted massive attendance and avid media coverage, generated broad acceptance and celebration of Chinese martial arts, and resulted in new waves of wuxia (martial hero) literature and kung-fu film that continue to this day.  

In Tibetan White Crane tradition, the origins of this martial art can be traced to the 15th century, and a Tibetan lama whose name has been transliterated into Mandarin as Adatuo (阿達陀). In Cantonese his name is pronounced Ah Dat To, and he also sometimes known as the Dai Dat Lama (大達喇嘛).

Adatuo lived in what today is China's Qinghai province, where he learned Tibetan wrestling sports and joint-locking techniques before becoming a monk. Then one day while meditating in the wilderness, he observed a battle between an ape and a white crane, in which the crane gracefully avoided the ape's attacks and aggressively counter attacks. Based on this experience, he developed a new martial art based upon the ape's powerful swinging and grabbing, and the crane's evasive movements and vital point striking.

Lion's Roar (獅子吼), a Buddhist term commonly used by Tibetan practitioners, was the name Adatuo chose for his new martial art. Tradition states that he, his disciples, and the following generations continued to develop the art during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Tradition aside, Tibet is home to a fierce martial culture, and Qinghai has long been a place where Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese cultures encountered each other, and where martial arts concepts such as animal-based styles have been absorbed and developed locally. 

In 1865, master Xing Lung (聖龍) arrived in the Guangdong area via Sichuan. Unlike his predecessors, this lama was no friend of the Manchu rulers. He quickly made a name for himself as a fighter — legend has it he defeated and then befriended a pirate, among other adventures — and began training a group of Lion's Roar disciples.

Residing at a monastery (Clear Cloud Temple, 清雲寺, or Blessed Cloud Temple, 慶雲寺), at first he trained only other monks. But his last two disciples were laymen who became the founders of two new branch lineages: 

1. Wong Yan-lam (王隱林) was leader of a famous group of anti-Qing rebels known as the Ten Tigers of Canton. He earned the title "hop" (俠, knight or martial hero) due to his many anti-Manchu exploits and good deeds. After Sing Long's death he worked across China as a caravan guard, and over time blended his Lion's Roar training with techniques gleaned from encounters with Hung Ga stylists and from his extensive combat experience. Upon his return to Guangdong he set up a platform and defeated a reported 150 challengers to re-establish himself as a master in the local area. 
2. Wong Lam-hoi (黃林開) remained in Guangdong after Sing Long's death, becoming a well-known fighter and a well-respected teacher who attracted many students. He may have emphasized the crane techniques within Lion's Roar, as his most famous disciple certainly did exactly that, renaming this lineage after the white crane as well: Bak Hok Pai (白鶴派), or White Crane Style.