the japanese monk that runs a lot

[Yaotl]

I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation of this (he cheated, for example), but I want to know y'all's thoughts on this (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1199760.htm)

In short, it's a thing where the guy runs miles nonstop with little to no food or water for days. Sleeps 2 hours a day and just runs continuously. Says that only 40 something people have completed it in 400 years. The reporting leaves much to be desired of course, it says 1000 days out of 7 years, and doesn't say what he does otherwise. Anyway, just read it and discuss, I thought it fit this place :D

[flyboy217]

Ain't nothin. Compare him to the Rolling Baba:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1234734,00.html

http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2004/01/holy_man_rollin.html


A holy man in India is rolling 1,500 miles from his home in Ratlam to Pakistan to congratulate the country's president for ongoing peace process between the two countries.

The holy man known as Ludkan Baba said he does not plan to eat during the rolling journey to Pakistan. He plans to only take sips of water and smoke an occasional cigarette.

[Yaotl]

Originally posted by flyboy217
Ain't nothin. Compare him to the Rolling Baba:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1234734,00.html

http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2004/01/holy_man_rollin.html

The Japanese couldn't drink for 9 days :D

[roger]

Well, here (http://www.scmtny.org/us/ultras/ultra_trio2004/1300worldrank/document_view) are some ranking for 1300mile races. They are going at about twice the pace of the monk, though for not as far a distance.

This guy (http://www.marathonman.org/) ran 200 marathons in one year.

Here's (http://www.intouchmag.com/deanna.html) a woman who averaged about 28 miles a day for 180 days straight, while pushing a baby stroller.


Here's a link (http://www.coolrunning.com.au/kevintiller/website.php?pagename=Main.Srichinmoy) of a world record 1000 mile race done in 11 days (just under 100 miles a day)

So, I don't know if the monk is really accomplishing the feat or not, but if so his output is around 1/2 a world record effort, but for a longer period of time. Is that possible? Maybe.

[Matabiri]

For starters...

It is so gruelling only 46 men have completed it in the past four centuries...

... No matter what happens, he cannot stop. If he fails to compete the challenge, he must immediately commit suicide.

The monk carries a rope and knife under his robes at all times, and his route takes him past the graves of other monks who have given up the 'kaihogyo', and their lives.

1) How many other monks have actually attempted the "challenge", and
2) What evidence is there that the graves are actually those of monks?

Also, there's a slightly different (and far more believable) account of another monk here (http://www.tornbjerg-gym.dk/religion/monkrun.htm).

Kakudo is one of the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei, and this will be only the first of 100 successive nights that he will get up at midnight, attend the service and start his marathon run/walk (kaihogyo) around Mount Hiei, completing the route between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. He will then attend an hour-long service, followed by bathing and the midday meal. After lunch, Kakudo will rest, then attend to temple chores. The last meal is taken around 6 p.m., and Kakudo gets to sleep around 8 or 9. The only variation in the 100-day ordeal will be a special 33-mile run through Kyoto, robbing him of one night's sleep altogether.

The run is 18 miles a day, not 80km. He also rests in the afternoon, eats several meals a day, and gets 3 - 4 hours sleep a night (it doesn't say whether he can sleep during the rest period).

Also (from the same page):

Since 1885, 46 marathon monks have completed the 1000-day journey -- an ordeal that is an option for the gyoja who passes the 100-day test.

So, in the last 120 years, not the last 400 years... then

When he finishes the 100 days, Kakudo can petition Hiei Headquarters to be allowed to undertake the 1000-day spiritual challenge (sennichi kaihogyo). If his petition is accepted, he must free himself from all family ties and observe a seven-year retreat on Mount Hiei. Kakudo will then commit himself to 900 more marathons over a seven-year period. The first 300 are 18- to 25-mile runs undertaken 100 days in a row, from the end of March to mid-October over three years. Starting in the fourth year, Kakudo will be allowed to wear socks with the sandals. During the fourth and fifth years, he will run 200 consecutive marathons each year and will be allowed to carry a walking stick. At the completion of the 700th marathon, Kakudo will face the greatest trial of all, called doiri -- seven and half days without food, water or sleep, sitting in an upright position and chanting mantras day and night. If he lives through this trial, which brings him to the brink of death and therefore to the ultimate appreciation of life, he will have attained the Buddhist level of Saintly Master of the Severe Practice (ogyoman jari).

Much more in link.

[apoger]

It's about 50 miles a day. While no small feat... that's not a huge number either. If he is only sleeping two hours a day, then he has 22 hours to go 50 miles. That's not running, it's walking.

The capacity to march 50 miles a day for 100 days straight is pretty impressive. Although the penalty of death for failure is a fairly strong motivation...

Impressive, yes.
Noteworthy, yes.
Supernatural, hardly.

[apoger]

The run is 18 miles a day, not 80km.

Then the link in the original post was exaggerating a bit...

Not uncommon for reporters who are looking to glorify whatever they are covering.

[roger]

But ... but... that would mean that ABC was embellishing the news.


Say it isn't so!

[Blondin]

That's nothin' compared to the lifetime achievements of Pae Mei*.












*Nowadays sole proprietor of the Zen Burger stand in LA where you can ask him to make you one with everything.

:D

[Operaider]

Maybe I'm missing something but, what's the point of this?

I can understand if someone's religious and wants to visit sacred sights. But, why not use your car? What's so special about walking to the site? It's not like he even has time to worship at the sacred grounds, he has to keep moving or else commit suicide. I'd be more impressed if he stayed at 1 site and prayed for a hundred days. This sounds less like a sacred journey and more like a scene from Forrest Gump.

[Jyera]

I read this in a book, there is a supposedly real account of a cultural practice...

It is said that some simple islander row their boat to their neighbours' place on another island. To present the neighbour with a gift, which is no more than just a simple piece of artifact which they passed around from one neighbour to another year after year.

What's the point?
Their point is the act of giving (not the gift).
Of taking the time and trouble to paddle. (for no apparent need, and no consideration for productivity.)

I think the point is ... it is different.

Experience of taking 100 days to walk to a site is different from the experience to pray 100 continuously days.
And these experience are different from, not doing it and not able to do it.

[Operaider]

So essentially he's doing because he can

[Ashles]

Here's another article about the challenge:

The Kaihogyo challenge (http://www.lehigh.edu/dmd1/public/www-data/holly.html)

This one has the daily run of about 40 km (about 28 miles-ish?)

Certainly very acheivable. Not easy, particularly, but hardly a unique achievement.

It seems of all the information on this challenge only the ABC article has such wildly high figures.

Lazy journalism strikes again.

[drkitten]

Originally posted by Ashles
Here's another article about the challenge:

The Kaihogyo challenge (http://www.lehigh.edu/dmd1/public/www-data/holly.html)

This one has the daily run of about 40 km (about 28 miles-ish?)

Certainly very acheivable. Not easy, particularly, but hardly a unique achievement.

It seems of all the information on this challenge only the ABC article has such wildly high figures.

Lazy journalism strikes again.

More like lazy reading, I'm afraid. The German web page cited earlier has a piece of information you all have largely missed.

The distance you have to run varies during the "Thousand Days." In the first year, for example, the monk has to run a daily distance of 18 miles. In the sixth year, the monk has to run a daily distance of 37.5 miles. In the seventh year, the monk has to run 100 52.5 mile "marathons" (about 80km) and then another 100 18-mile runs. Even the web page you cited includes this information : The final year of the 1000-day term consists of two 100-day terms. These consist of daily 84-kilometer runs.

My understanding is that the monk described in the initial post has just entered the seventh year of the regime, and so it's completely legitimate to describe what he has to do as a daily 80-km run. Which is exactly what ABC did:

On each of 100 consecutive days, Genshin Fujinami runs more than 80 kilometres along dangerous mountain paths.

[Ashles]

Oh yes, I skimmed it and only looked at the training bit.