The first Grandmaster in the Shaolin Do system was Su Kong Tai Jin (1849-1928). He was born with a rare disease which caused his entire body to be covered with hair. As a result he was abandoned by his parents and brought up by the monks of the Fukien temple. Because of his odd condition he shunned the outside world and concentrated completely on martial arts training. Rather than being taught one style by one Master, as was traditional, he learned from all of the Masters at the temple and was the first person to learn every branch of Shaolin training. He was given the title of Grandmaster, which he passed on to E Chang Ming (1880-1976).

Grandmaster E left China for political reasons and settled in Indonesia. It was he who gave Shaolin Do its name and the outer appearance of a Japanese martial art (the uniforms and belt system that we use are Japanese style, as the Indonesian government forbade Chinese martial arts from being practiced).

Grandmaster E trained Sin Kwang Thé (born in 1943) from a very young age. At 22 years of age Sin Thé moved to the United States to attend the University of Kentucky, but continued to train under the direction of Grandmaster E, who promoted him to Grandmaster at the age of 25, making him the youngest Grandmaster ever.

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Additional information may be found on Grandmaster Sin Thé's website, and at the Shaolin Do Association website.