Having not heard of the famous shàolín (少林) battle monks is almost impossible. When I was about to choose a martial art, I soaked up everything, which I was able to find on them. I wondered very much about the idea that religious people would learn how to fight. I soon figured out that battle monks were never unique to Chinese Buddhists!

Europeans had their own battle monks. They were known as the Knight Order of Templar. They were knights, who had sworn the oath to protect pilgrims on their pilgrimages, originally only to Jerusalem. The knights did this because a knight could be an as faithful believer as anybody else and European knights used to be very religious. The Knights Templar became a religious order within the Catholic Church, founded outposts everywhere on all possible paths of pilgrims and gained such power that the Catholic Church began to fear the Knights Templar. So the Knights Templar became the victims of a plot and were all killed. Thus is of course not much left from their martial art.

The protection of pilgrims or similar religious people seemed to be necessary elsewhere too. Japanese monasteries used to hire mercenaries! These then slowly developed into battle monks too.

Chinese monks also went on pilgrimages. This was mainly an exchange between Chinese and Indian monasteries in order to spread Buddhism and establish Buddhism in China. The monks, who went on these pilgrimages, had to care themselves for their protection. This is the true origin of Chinese battle monks. The Indian battle monk Bodhidharma was the teacher of the shàolín (少林) battle monks. He taught them in the martial arts and in Buddhism.

Battle monks had nowhere in the world been a contradiction. Religious feelings and the need to protect oneself coexist in every human being. When both are strong, then this can result in the choice to become a monk and a warrior as well. Warriors also went to battles to protect their religion, although no war was ever fought because of religion. This cause was always only used to manipulate people into fighting for the interests of the rich. Warfare was indeed always connected with religion. Sacrifices were made to the gods of war in antiquity, the protection of a religion served often as an excuse to expand a territory, priests and pastors bless flags and weapons until today. Christendom and Islam, but even Buddhism in ancient India, spread by the means of military violence. Chinese emperors barracked their armies in Buddhist monasteries and supported the Buddhist monasteries financially in return. Some monasteries became rich and hence targets of assaults this way.

You probably learned something about history from this article, but I was mainly concerned about whether a monk could be a capable martial artist. The necessity was given at least.