With stunts, Chinese Shaolin monks add festivity to Cameroon's independence celebration

Twenty-one Chinese monks with Shaolin Temple, known as the cradle of kung-fu, on Friday gave a spectacular martial arts presentation in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon, to mark the country's 50th anniversary of independence.

Dressed in saffron tunic, the monks who come from Mt. Song in the central Chinese Henan Province, took one and half hours on the stage to entertain the crowd that had assembled to learn more about the Chinese culture of martial arts.

The monks were loudly applauded by the crowd as they presented the ancient teachings of Bodhidharma, the father of Shaolin kung- fu, who taught himself defence methods, the diamond and traditional boxing, the hard qigong or the smashing of steel with the head, charging with swords, working with flexibility, the 18 Shaolin weapons, just to name a few.

The celebrations of Cameroon's 50 years of independence which was also marked with spectacular traditional presentations by various groups from this Central African country.

The performance by members of "Cameroon's kung-fu group" was equally applauded.

"We are very pleased because of the presence of the Shaolin Temple monks in our country. We hope to continue cooperating with them so that we can get more technical and material support from them," the technical director of this group Leopold Sifu Kakmou told Xinhua.

"Cameroon has a lot of people who are interested in the sport. All that is needed is for them to be supported," he added. Despite infrastructural and financial difficulties, his group today has over 250 members.

"We have had a very good night that was characterized by the spectacular presentations from the Chinese troupe and we want to thank the Chinese government for having joined us and supported our 50 years independence celebrations," the Cameroonian Culture Minister Ama Tutut Muna said after the event.

The event was also attended by the Chinese Culture Minister Cai Wu who was a special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the Cameroonian celebrations.

The Shaolin Temple troupe will leave for the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea after another event in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital.

Source:Xinhua