Erle Montaigue RIP

Fajing Chuan founder,Erle Montaigue,died suddenly at his home in Wales on Wednesday afternoon.He was 62. I trained with him a couple of times in the nineties and found him to be very generous with his knowledge.RIP.

That's sad.

I remember reading an article about him in an old MA magazine years ago. He came across as a genuine guy with a lot of knowledge about the MA's.

That is a shame.

I remember reading about him in Fighting Arts International (still the best MA magazine ever). Came across as a good guy.

Still a relatively young man too.

Spent a few hours with him many years ago in Auckland.

He was a very pleasant man who seemed more interested in my Welsh background than in talking about MA.

Very sad.

He was talking about the reptilian brain way before it was popular!

just R.I.P. Erle

D Ron Evans wrote:

"...He was a very pleasant man who seemed more interested in my Welsh background than in talking about MA. ..."

Ace Ventura wrote:He was talking about the reptilian brain way before it was popular!

That's a bit harsh about Ron's Welsh background!

JKA

Funnily enough;

During our conversations he waxed lyrical about the Welsh countryside,Welsh culture and the character of the people.

I reminded him about the beauty of Australia - Ayers Rock/Uluru and The Sydney Harbour Bridge. About how,in another thousand years or so,Australia would be bound to have developed some culture and that the Aussies I'd met were generally good people too.

He pondered a little and then told me that what I'd said was indeed true but,he did have issues with some of the people.There are those,he said,in Australia who for all the world look and act as though they are the result of inter-breeding with the big,fat,ugly and highly poisonous cane toad. As the words left his mouth a light seemed to shine from his eyes,he reached for a pad and pencil and drew the outline of what looked like the human brain...

So,you see - It may well be that I was witness to the Australian version of Ueshiba's 'Golden moment.'

I knew Erle and his family personally in 1992 and I had the pleasure of visiting him on his farm and sharing a vegetarian meal with his wife and children. I asked him why he had left Sydney to live in the bush and he replied 'because I could'. He was very kind to me with his advice and generous with his time. Back in the early 90s I put out my first training videos but didn't have the ability to make the cover with the writing on the spine and so on. Erle made the first couple for me and mailed me the masters. He really didn't have to do that but he said he did since he had encouraged me to make my own tapes. He said "Don't go beating on other people's doors.Make a path for them to come and beat on yours".

In 2007 I caught up with him via email after learning he had moved to Wales. The long haired 12 year old I had met on the farm was now doing seminars all over Europe representing his father and keeping the Taiji legacy going. Rest in peace, Erle.