THE INTERNAL TUM PAI HISTORY
By Sigung Jon A. Loren

In 1964, I began my training with Sifu and Doctor J. Weong, (Malaysia) in Southern Sillum, Penta Silat, Paqua, and Tai Chi. Sifu Weong was also a healer and herbalist. Though the training was very physical, it was also based on health and longevity. The system was noted on its leg-striking techniques, short and long staff techniques, and knife techniques. These were coupled with sound health principles and medicinal use throughout the course of our physical training. This is where I started my training as an herbalist. Lastly, my foundation and understanding of traditional ethics in Gung-fu were laid as a base in my initial training.

It took years for me to realize how fortunate I was to start with this solid foundation. The education, understanding, and belief in traditional ethics (Wu Teh Code) later played a major part in my martial arts life. As a student, then teacher, and still later a senior teacher, the 'code' gave me a structure that guided my very being. From this 'presence' I was elected the head of the Ethics Committee for the International Kajukenbo system, an achievement I will always be proud of.

Later, I established the "International Tum Pai Honor Award". This prestigious award gave world recognition annually to up to two individual practitioners, who were linked to the Kajukenbo system as well as from any system in the world.

Along with developing the Tum Pai system, the "Honor Award" has become one of my greatest achievements to further promote the ethical standard that is the Spirit and the Soul of true Martial Arts. Practitioners who would like to nominate any other practitioner for consideration worldwide can contact Sigung Jay Burkey, Secretary of the International Tum Pai Association, for further details. His address is:

Sigung Jay Burkey
2136 China Garden Road
Kalama, WA 98625 USA
Email: jrburkey@scattercreek.com
Phone: 1-360-673-2311

You can also contact:

Prof. Jon A. Loren
P.O. BOX 124
Brookings, OR 97415 USA
Email: tumpaikahuna@gmail.com
Phone: 1-541-469-6788
 

In 1970, I opened my first school in Federal Way, Washington after receiving my black belt from Sifu Joseph Clarke. I have a lot of admiration, appreciation, and respect for Sifu Clarke. At times, he was a very hard teacher but I grew to love him, not only as my teacher of Kajukenbo and as a friend, but also as a human being who constantly strived for perfection in martial arts, in and out of the Gwoon.

Sifu Clarke was a born innovator. He was one who always had an intense interest, devotion, and had lived martial arts. I feel he received this original seed from his first and main teacher Augung Tony Ramos, who had the same intensity. Sifu Clarke had been one martial artist that had never stopped growing, studying many systems, such as Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Northern Praying Mantis, Paqua, Tai Chi, American boxing, Jujitsu, and the list goes on and on. He spent his life studying martial arts, never too big or too knowledgeable to start from the beginning of the basics in any system, demonstrating his humbleness time and time again. He has definitely been a guide in my martial arts life.

Sifu Clarke's creation from the root of Kajukenbo is called "Emerging Center" and from his dedication and path I developed my own path in the internal Gung-fu. I used Kajukenbo as my street concept structure, like my teacher, but Tai Chi as my foundation and my bottom roots.

My desire to go in the direction of Internal Gung-fu goes back to my initial training with Sifu Weong. Though I was training in Paqua and Tai Chi as a requirement, I did not have a good understanding or an appreciation for the internal side of martial arts until I met his teacher, Sifu Zuo, in 1964-65. As an elderly man in his 80's, he possessed more power, speed, and health than I or anyone else had in their twenties. From that time on, I began my learning in training to seriously include the internal side. As I grew as a practitioner, the internal side also grew in importance to what I wanted in martial arts.

In 1971, I moved my school to Kelso, Washington, leaving my other school in Federal Way for Sifu Clarke to take over. I did so to be closer to my brother, Linden, who had an auto accident that left him paralyzed. From the Kelso, Washington Gwoon, I decided that martial arts was the direction I was to go in my life.

Initially, I might add, that my direction before that time was to have an occupation as a "Sea-Man". From the age of 15, I was occupied with learning about the sea: from marine biology, to oceanography, to diving. I started in the military (Coast Guard) as an engineer/diver, then proceeded into commercial deep sea diving, and then went out of the service to study oceanography in college. I thought that was going to be my life endeavor. But, the more I trained in martial arts, the more it eventually took over my soul, and in 1971, when I began teaching in Kelso, I also began to rededicate my life's direction and occupation totally to be towards martial arts.

The year 1971 was a very significant time in my life, for being a certified teacher in Kajukenbo for a while, I began to feel my direction. Besides teaching, I put thousands of hours into my personal internal outdoor training.

At that time, I began training in the Ng style of Tai Chi under Sifu Gregory Fong. We had a good relationship, traded knowledge, and have been friends ever since. A few years later, I began training with Dr. Gerald Berardi, a student of Professor Jou Tse Huang. Though he was not martially inclined, he had good basics in the Yang Style, which I had previously studied under Sifu Weong. Good basics are the soul of the arts so I greatly appreciated my study with Dr. Berardi. During this period, from 1971 to 1975, I started working on my own internal direction, outside of class by training in the mountains. I used Kajukenbo"s street-wise techniques, and at the same time, I slowly worked on ways to internalize its movements through Tai Chi"s internal concept while still getting the same results. The main reason for this direction was that even though Kajukenbo definitely got the job done in self-defense, it was sometimes quite brutal on the body from its realistic concept of training. Having the bigger share of training on the internal side of martial arts and as a training herbalist, I tried to evaluate each exercise, technique, or training concept. In that period of time (1971-1975), I gradually grew solid about using Tai Chi as its basis for everything. At that time, I did not teach Tai Chi but just did my own private practice with this approach in mind. One of the more compelling reasons for this direction was also that the people and students in the Kelso area seem to be larger and stronger than usual.

I think this is mostly due to the logging industry there, which seemed to have had an effect on everyone. It became clear that if I was going to survive as a teacher, I could not go against such strength, for I was just normal size and these people were strong. This would hold true for women, or any smaller-than-standard person. Using the internal methods would equalize the size and strength for one who uses it, rather than just fighting against strength.

I had not only to really learn the internal method well and be able to apply it, but I had to reorganize my teaching methods to teach the internal methods of yielding, redirection, and reversing under pressure, thus, enabling the smaller person to effectively take down the bigger person. Yet, I did not start teaching this technique until 1975, for I needed permission to actually alter Kajukenbo techniques if I was going to be under the Kajukenbo system, which I had grown to love. So, up to that time it was called Northern Kajukenbo.

In 1975, I got permission from Sifu Clarke to go and train directly under Professor Adriano Emperado, who was the head, the main organizer, and one of the fathers of Kajukenbo. I was fortunate enough to be invited to Hawaii to live with the Professor and his family. This had a powerful impact on me. For years, the Professor had gone into seclusion and refused to train anyone, so I was one lucky person. I was treated like one of the family where there was a lot of love and mutual respect. Getting more relaxed with the training, I decided to take a chance and show the Professor what I had been working on. To my relief, he liked it and encouraged me to continue training in my direction. Even more, he asked me to work with his son, Clarence, who at the time was a young man.

Later, Clarence became strong like his father, so there was not a reason for him to learn the soft-style when he could effectively do the self-defense with Kajukenbo's original methods.

Finally, at that time, after ten years of working on the internal concept, I asked to call it Tum Pai and it was granted. I had heard about the name Tum Pai, meaning "Central Way", in our system but did not know much about it. As it was explained to me, I realized that name was going to be a progression of the Kajukenbo system that was developed originally by the Professor, Sifu Al Dela Cruz and Sifu Al Dacoscos. A couple of years later, they changed the name to Chuan-Fa, meaning "Fist Way", which seemed to fit their combined effort of soft-hard Kung-fu techniques much better. The soft-style Tum Pai system does not have any similarities to the first Tum Pai / Ch'uan-fa concept. Ch'uan-fa / Tum Pai was the soft-hard additive to Kajukenbo and the Tum Pai system became the internal side or branch of Kajukenbo.

Thus, the name Tum Pai was to be reactivated and it found a new home. Still I had a lot of work ahead of me, for to internalize a system the size of Kajukenbo it was going to take 20 years of hard work, which gave me direction and the energy to do so. I trained seven days a week, for over ten years, putting in thousands of hours of my personal time, just to be sure I wouldn't disappoint the Professor. The difficulty of this major change was that I still wanted it to resemble Kajukenbo, to use the street-wise format, and yet do it internally. Also, I did not want to leave the Kajukenbo family, always showing allegiance to my main family roots. So after being sanctioned to call it a name, I realized it was just the start.

Once back in the states (Kelso), I actually started to integrate what I had been working on for five years into the classroom. Now, this was no easy task, the students had been taught straight Kajukenbo from Sifu Clarke's lineage, so I realized that it had to be done slowly.

It should be noted that, up until 1974, I did not teach Tai Chi to the open public, but by 1975, I could already see a major problem for Tai Chi as it started to become more spread across the states. The problem was that there was not a certification program for teachers and one could see the writing on the wall. After taking classes for a few months to a year, people actually thought they could teach what they had learned without permission from their teacher, let alone certification. This non-martial breech has happened to this day.

So, in 1975, I received permission from my original teacher, Sifu Weong, to institute a Tai Chi certification program that identifies practitioners out of the Tum Pai system as legitimate teachers.

A true marital arts teacher's fear, of course, is to have someone, whom you have taught to some degree, to go out and start teaching without a time tested background and say that they have come from you and/or your system, which in turn gives you and/or your system a black eye.

So, 1975 was an important year for Tum Pai, for not only was it given the permission to be called Tum Pai then, but at that time, I laid a foundation of what was called Northern Tai Chi, which became an intricate part of the Tum Pai system. Northern Tai Chi represented a number of Tai Chi and Paqua styles that I put into a progressive order of technical difficulty development and refinement.

Back now, I will revisit Tum Pai's development between 1975 and 1980. One of the hardest things I have found is to teach a soft-style. For one, in order to actually use this type of technique you have to be in a relaxed state, mentally and physically. One's ego has to be at rest. The natural state that people use when being attacked is to become rigid when encountered. So, in order to get people to use a true soft-style, you have to teach them the unnatural state when encountered, the trained, relaxed state. If a student would start with this concept, it would be easier than if a student were trained in a hard or hard/soft style originally, for both to get ingrained in their cellular structure. Thus, I had my hands full and had to reinvent ways to reestablish the cellular memory. Lastly, humans simply like stability. Change somewhat threatens this balance. I had trained a fine bunch of practitioners during that 1975 -1980 period. Some of the students started as far back as 1971.

These people were solidly ingrained in Northern Kajukenbo so this was no easy chore for me. Of course I ran into resistance when I started integrating some of the soft-style concepts. I did this slowly, but even then, their backgrounds weren't strong enough to realize the importance of this direction. Most were strong fellows, so why change something that works for them? Nevertheless, I persisted in the integration, slowly.

By 1980, I needed a break from this continuous seven day a week training, so I turned over the school in Kelso to Sifu Bob Heuer, one of my younger black sashes. I decided to go overseas to Fiji and New Zealand for what I hoped would be a break, but I was so ingrained with training that I ended up teaching and further working on the modifications needed to be a true soft-style. Before I left, I gave each Black Sash or Advanced Student an assignment to get them to work hopefully on the soft-style concepts. Each was given two forms to change to soft-style, as well as various tricks, grab arts, and punching attacks. I didn't expect them to fully grasp the concept, but I definitely thought this was a great way for them to do some thinking on their own. In the meantime, I was getting more intense in my endeavors of making a super soft-style, especially while I was in New Zealand, which seemed a very spiritual place to me. I practiced four to eight hours a day, meditated, and engulfed myself in nature. On the South Island, I was hiking in the Southern Alps when I found a fairly large cavern with a beautiful spring to drink from. Less than one quarter mile away from the cavern were hot springs, complete with a waterfall. I had found paradise, so I decided to stay and train. This spot had unusual power which I immediately felt and wanted to absorb. I stayed for two and a half months and had major transformations in my spirit, an understanding of the Earth and how my art would couple with it. My training went in to levels I did not know existed and definitely had never felt before. I trained between six and eight hours a day, and what transpired from this training period was "Yam Foon Jeet Sow Fut", "Night Wind Intercepting Palm", the basis of the advanced system of Tum Pai.

Though I had been working on these concepts since 1964, I never put them into progressive format or understood how high the levels could go. These early roots allowed me to open the gates and keep opening the gates on my path upward. I started working on advanced concepts in 1971, but it took ten years for me to really understand how to put it together.

My time spent in New Zealand was definitely a turning point. The more I worked on the Tum Pai base system, the more I understood its advanced system. I might add that Hawaii had a definite impact on me as well. Because of my roots of outdoor living, I had become very connected with the land, and would carry on conversations with it. Everywhere I went I talked to 'spirits of the land': on the Kalama River in Washington, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, and back to Hawaii. New Zealand and Hawaii both gave me power and visions at times that actually were somewhat frightening, which I will explain more in detail in the book I am currently writing. Both places were drop-off areas for the migrating Kahunas in the past, and I feel their presence somehow affected me periodically.

Once back in the states, my black sashes who I had given the assignment of training to do, all had different results. Because they had grown up in martial arts doing what is termed Northern Kajukenbo (a hard-soft blend), to get into the internal method completely was difficult. In addition, my being gone for so long didn't help matters either. At this time, some had no grasp on the concepts, some had some grasp on the concepts, and a couple were starting to get the basic idea. I think Sifu Bob Heuer probably had the best connection at that level then, but this was truly at the basic level of internal concepts at this time (1982). I worked on their forms and application arts from the late 1970's to about 1985 trying to integrate soft-style concepts (Tum Pai).

My biggest mistake at that time was having them do a training assignment of, say, developing a form or application and then critiquing it to find where they had gone astray or not. At this time, it seemed like a great training exercise, but later a couple of black sashes had actually thought that they had developed Tum Pai from it.

Most of these students, who became black sashes under me, hadn't started training until late 1974 - 75 and, in addition, hadn't started their internal training until 1978 - 79, so I obviously hadn't done a good job training where their heads were at. Sadly, I never did get to further train these few who thought they had it together, what Tum Pai was about. I traditionally taught myself to always hold back and see what the student was really about, this being good advice from my teachers, which I have always upheld. Time in the arts is our friend and even in obtaining their black sashes or teaching certificates, it does not tell us that we totally know them. Rank, power, or money over others always brings to light the true spirit and soul of the teacher. This is why I wait to teach the upper level of Tum Pai and the advanced Yam Foon Jeet Sow Fut after they are black sashes.

The more years in, the more we feel justified to teach. For instance, the time the students reach their Black Sash area, I have taught them 20-30% of the Knife and Chin Na techniques. Since Tum Pai has a lot of these techniques, in progressive order, it is deceptive to sometimes think one has all there is to offer, if their heads are in the wrong place. Consequently, some black sashes had hardly gotten started in real Tum Pai training, before they went off on their own. The ones that did keep going to upper levels, or who have come under the Tum Pai umbrella of practitioners, practicing Tum Pai concepts and techniques, are listed below and are certified and/or registered by the International Tum Pai Association as bonified Black Sashes that study, in part or whole, the Tum Pai system.

http://www.tumpaiassociation.com/history.html