The Sun Toi - 祠堂
The Sun Toi is the ancestral shrine in a traditional Chinese "Gung fu kwoon" - 功夫館, or martial arts school, that pays homage to our lineage: those that passed the Art down to the Sifu (teacher) of the school. Kung fu martial artists bow to the Sun Toi when we enter and leave the training space using the traditional ‘tiger and dragon" fist, sometimes referred to as the "sun and moon" fist.
Incense is lit and placed on the Sun-Toi.
In some traditional Kung Fu kwoons, on special occasions wine in the cups and fruits are placed on the SunToi. It can be a small table or it could be the whole side of a wall. They can be ornately carved wooden masterpieces or a simple shelf-style structure. In every traditional Kung Fu kwoon (mo kwoon) you will find some very common items but also many differences based on the flavor of the "style", i.e., a Wing Chun school will have pictures of Grand Master Ip Man while a Hung Ga or a Choi Li Fut kwoon would have pictures of Wong Fei Hung or Chan Heung respectively.
In our kwoon we have a wide side table covered in a beautiful hand-stitched Moroccan tapestry brought from Marrakech by Sifu Griffith. There are a pair of foreboding shishi (石獅), or Guardian Lions-- commonly called Fu Lions/Foo Dogs in the West-- guarding the kwoon. In every Chinese martial arts kwoon regardless of style you can expect to find a statue of General Guan Yu. Guan Yu was a famous and near legendary Chinese general that lived during the 3rd century. His life was lionised and his achievements glorified to such an extent after his death that he was deified during the Sui Dynasty. Through generations of storytelling, culminating in the 14th-century historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" his deeds and moral qualities have been given immense emphasis. He is seen as the symbol of loyalty and righteousness.
Our Sun Toi also includes a Viking longship incense burner, a nod to Sifu's Nordic ancestry.