Venerable Shi Yanfan accepting recognition from Los Angeles City Council President Herb J

Franco Testini, known professionally as the Venerable Shi Yan Fan, is a 34th-generation ordained Shaolin Warrior Monk and cultural ambassador of the Song Shan Shaolin Temple in China. He is a disciple of

Shi Yongxin Shi Yongxin () is the current abbot of the Shaolin Temple. He is the thirteenth successor after Shi Xingzheng. He is the Chairman of the Henan Province Buddhists Association, a representative of the Ninth National People's Congress and also one of ...

, 30th Abbot of the Shaolin Temple in

Dengfeng City Dengfeng (; postal: Tengfeng) is a county-level city of Henan Province, South Central China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou. Dengfeng has an area of and a population of 630,000. It occupies the southwe ...

Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

, and is the head abbot of the Los Angeles Shaolin Temple in

Sherman Oaks, California Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...

, United States.

Biography

Born in

Brindisi Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Histo ...

, Italy, Testini began studying martial arts aged seven. Coming from a poor family of 10, he challenged other children in the neighborhood to martial arts contests to win money to support his family. Aged nine, he was then introduced to a master named Kim Wong Feng, who accepted Testini as his student. By the age of 19, Testini had won several national fighting and forms competitions in Italy, and also won first place against 700 competitors for strongest arms at the Golden Dragon competition in Amsterdam. At the age of 21, he entered the Chi Ri temple in South Korea to take vows of becoming a monk. In 1994, Testini moved to the United States to promote Shaolin and Buddhism. Upon his arrival in the United States, he was homeless and unable to speak English, and exchanged martial arts instruction for food, while gradually gathering students. In 2004, Testini was inducted into the Shaolin Temple at Song Shan Mountain in

, China. He became a disciple of the Abbot Shi Yongxin, adopted the name Shi Yan Fan ("Powerful Sky"), and was given permission to open a Shaolin Temple in Los Angeles, which opened in 2008 in a former furniture store in Sherman Oaks. In 2007, an ordination ceremony was held at the Shaolin Temple. Shi Yan Fan was the first of a total of 43 Shaolin monks to receive the ''

jieba ''Jieba'' ( zh, 戒疤) is an ordination practice where ritual burn scars are received by Buddhist monks of some sects of Chan Buddhism, including Shaolin monks. This practice is very rare and is part of an elaborate ceremony that is undertake ...

'' markings in that ceremony, becoming the first Westerner to be ordained as a Shaolin monk. In 2012, Shi Yan Fan founded a nonprofit organization, the Yanfan Foundation, providing health and wellness training.

References

External links

Shaolin Temple Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, CA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fan, Shi Yan Living people Shaolinquan practitioners Year of birth missing (living people)