Ah Dat Ta
Legendary figureLegendary Tibetan lama whom tradition regards as the originator of the Lion's Roar and Pak Hok Pai (Tibetan White Crane) styles; he is not documented as a historical person.
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ChinaBiography
Ah Dat Ta (阿達陀, pinyin Adatuo) is a legendary figure whom tradition links with the origin of the style Pak Hok Pai (Tibetan White Crane). According to tradition, he was a Tibetan lama who lived in the 15th century in the area of today's Qinghai province in China. The sources explicitly call this account traditional, not verified, and compare it to similar legends about the origin of Wing Chun and taiji.
According to tradition, while meditating in the wild he observed a fight between a monkey and a white crane: the crane deftly evaded attacks and struck back. From this he was supposed to have created a system that combines the monkey's strength and grips with the crane's evasiveness and attacks on sensitive points. He named it with the Buddhist term "Lion's Roar" (獅子吼).
According to tradition, the art developed under the Ming and Qing dynasties and in southern China split into three branches: Bak Hok Pai (Ng Siu-chung), Hop Ga Kuen (Wong Hong-wing) and Lama Pai. Master Sing Lung, given as the 11th generation, brought it to Guangdong in 1865. The syllabus has 24 forms and rests on four principles: chan, sim, chuen and jeet. In 1954 Ng Siu-chung's student Chan Hak Fu faced the Wu-style taijiquan master Wu Gongyi in a charity match.
The Qinghai region had a martial culture with styles inspired by animals. The documented history of this art, however, begins only in the Qing period, not with Ah Dat Ta. His connection with both the Lion's Roar and Pak Hok Pai is an account shared by both traditions, which we have not been able to verify historically.