Lê Sáng ( vi-hantu, , 1920 – September 27, 2010) was the Chairman of the

Vovinam Vovinam (short for ''Võ Việt Nam''; literally meaning Vietnamese Martial Arts, or vi, Việt Võ Đạo (越武道), meaning Vietnamese Way of Martial Arts) is a Vietnamese martial art, It was founded in 1938 by Nguyễn Lộc. It is based ...

Vietnamese Martial Arts World Federation, a position he held from 1960 until his death.

Biography

Le Sang was born to Le Van Hien (also known as Duc Quang) (1887–1959) and Nguyen Thi Mui (1887–1993). He was sickly as a child, which made it difficult for him to walk. His mother advised him to study martial arts in order to strengthen his legs. In

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

he learned Vovinam at Nguyễn Lộc's Vovinam school. Soon Le Sang was a teacher himself and, together with Nguyễn Lộc, continued to develop Vovinam. In 1954, Le Sang accompanied Nguyễn Lộc to Saigon to open a Vovinam school. He opened additional Vovinam schools, and as of 2007, was still teaching the higher-ranked students. In 1960, Nguyễn Lộc passed the leadership of Vovinam to Le Sang. Founding Grandmaster Nguyễn's passing couldn't have come at a worse time, because later that year a coup attempt occurred in November led by

Lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Nguyễn Chánh Thi Nguyễn Chánh Thi (; 23 February 1923 – 23 June 2007) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known for being involved in frequent coups in the 1960s and wielding substantial influence as a key member o ...

. In the coup,

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

by the name of Pham Loi was implicated in his involvement in the coup. The news of a martial artist being involved in a coup to topple the government caused the Diem government to be suspicious of the martial arts organizations in the country and many of the martial arts including

was prohibited. However, after the success of the 1963 coup and the coming to power of the

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

came to power, the ban on martial arts was annulled. In 1964, Le and the other Vovinam masters under him met together. It was then that the term Việt Võ Đạo (越武道) was coined, and the art was known as Võ Việt Nam - Việt Võ ĐạoVovinam History
/ref> After the fall of Saigon he spent several periods in prison. Leadership passed to Trần Huy Phong (1938-1997).

References

External links

Vo su Sang To Nguyen Loc

History of Vovinam in Switzerland
((German)) 1920 births 2010 deaths Vietnamese martial artists Sportspeople from Hanoi {{Martialart-bio-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links