OT: Western v. Eastern martial arts

[HoneyBadger]

In both the East (eg: Shaolin, Sohei) and the West (eg: the Knights Hospitaller/Teutonic Knights/Knights Templar), there were orders of monastic religious warriors.

[sum1lost]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

In both the East (eg: Shaolin, Sohei) and the West (eg: the Knights Hospitaller/Teutonic Knights/Knights Templar), there were orders of monastic religious warriors.

Of very different forms. Shaolin monks, at least, had martial arts training for a very different reason than knightly orders did. The knightly orders went off and campaigned for religious reasons. It was because of this that they needed to learn how to fight. It wasn't their focus, and as a result wasn't as regimented and documented.