Silk Road Taekwondo Friendship Tour
– Now in our 8th year –
Above is Uzbekistan’s World Taekwondo team, 2015. Photo by G. Brundage.
Updated March 7, 2023
Welcome! Marhaba! My name is Greg Brundage, also called “Coach Stone” and I’m the founder and principal host of the Silk Road Taekwondo Friendship Tour. Over the years I’ve traveled solo and with various friends meeting, training with, interviewing, and photographing Taekwondo masters from ITF, WT, Jhoon Rhee and non-affiliated Taekwondo schools, as well as national and international Taekwondo federation officials, coaches and athletes in countries all across the land and maritime Silk Roads. We also feature indigenous martial artists and schools, and visit ancient Silk Road historical sites, major museums, cultural landmarks and so on.
Right now I’m in Chiang Mai Thailand, and recently met some great Taekwondo people here in this great ancient city, formerly the capital of Lan Na Kingdom.
Nicolas Eynaud – Own work; based on David K. Wyatt (2004), Thailand: A Short History, 2nd ed. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, p. 75, Cornell Southeast Asia Program map Ayudhya Empire 1540, Victor Lieberman (2003), Strange Parallels (Vol. 1), p. 29, Baker, Chris. Phongpaichit, Pasuk. A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World. Urban Places in the Seventeenth Century Map. Stuart-Fox, Martin. A History of Laos. Mainland Southeast Asia mid-16th to early-19th centuries Map.Southeast Asian history – Around 1540 CC BY-SA 4.0
Upcoming Taekwondo and Selected National & International Sports Events in Thailand – 2023
For World Taekwondo Competition Schedule: https://mtconnexion.com/world-taekwondo-events-calendar-2023
For International Taekwondo Federation Calendar: https://www.itf-tkd.org/events
In or Near Thailand
March 31 – April 4, 2023 GH Bank Taekwondo Championship of Thailand 2023 “Kyorugi” (Korean word for sparring in Taekwondo) Location: Indoor athletics building Eastern National Sports Center Chonburi Province Competition Sign-up Via GMS from 5 – 22 March 2023 / The application fee is 500 baht per person. Each Do-chan (school) applications and fees should be collected and paid together. Transfer to account name: Mr. Teerasak Chaipanurak and /or Mrs. Pattamaporn McBride / Account number 099-245246-0 / Siam Commercial Bank Ramkhamhaeng 24 sub-branch. Together with attaching a money transfer slip (Pay in slip) and specifying Do-chan’s name. Send documents to E-mail: info@tkd.or.th Registration for competition: Download the regulations at: https://tkd.or.th/2023/03/03/1332/ NOTE: The link and text above are all in Thai language. Readers can translate entire webpages by doing a right click on the page when using google.com. There are no guarantees with the accuracy of translations by Google Translate.
May 5-17, 2023 SEA Games
This is the logo owned by 2023 Cambodian SEA Games Organizing Committee (CAMSOC) for 2023 Southeast Asian Games article. Further details: 2023 Southeast Asian Games logo. 2023 Southeast Asian Games / 2023 ASEAN Para Games website. Fair use
The 32nd SEA Games will be held in Phnom Penh and a few other locations within Cambodia, with the Morodok Techo National Stadium being the main venue. It will be the first SEA Games in Cambodia. There will be 40 sports at the 32nd edition of the biennial tournament including finswimming, Ok Chakktrong (Khmer chess), Kun Khmer (Cambodian martial art) and cricket. Thailand finished second overall at the 31st Games in Vietnam last year with 92 gold medals, behind the hosts who claimed 205 golds. Thai teenage sprinter Puripol Boonson will defend his 100m and 200m titles. Cambodia has added many local sports such as Kun Bukator, and Khmer martial arts at SEA Games 32. The SEA Games 32 will be held at five locations in Cambodia, including Phnom Penh capital, Siem Reap province, Preah Sihanouk, Kampot and Kep. / The list of 38 sports at SEA Games 32 includes athletics, water sports (swimming, diving, water polo and diving), badminton, basketball, billiards, boxing, bodybuilding, chess, cycling (mountain biking and road cycling), cricket, dance sport, E-sport, fencing, floorball, football (men and women), golf, fitness (aerobic and gymnastics), hockey (indoor and outdoor), jet ski, judo, karate, mixed martial arts (Bokator, Arnis, Jujitsu, Kickboxing, Vovinam, Khmer Martial Arts), obstacle race, pencak silat, petanque, sailing, sepak takraw, soft tennis, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, traditional boat racing, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wushu, wrestling and teqball.
https://en.nhandan.vn/official-sports-of-sea-games-32-announced-post119060.html
https://www.bangkokpost.com/sports/2476624/nine-big-tournaments-to-watch-in-2023
November 17 – 26, 2023 – 6Th Asian Indoor Martial Art Games
Bangkok & Chonburi, Thailand / Twenty-nine medal sports and two demonstration sports are included on the AIMAG programme. / There will be a total of 305 events, with 297 gold medals available to be won. / https://olympicthai.org/en/event/6th-asian-indoor-martial-art-games-2023
Taekwondo is a global family and has been for a very long time
My international Taekwondo Friendship Tour really began in 1972 when I first traveled internationally to train in Taekwondo in South America. Since then, I studied at university for 15 years, and traveled through and lived in 30+ more countries including seven years in South Korea.
Die Seidenstrasse Silk Road
My journeys took me far and wide across all of Asia from Korea to China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Thailand, and Ethiopia (called “Abyssinia” in ancient times) which was and remains part of the maritime Silk Roads.
African Map (1840)
While traveling the Silk Roads we also research, visit, photograph and write about the museums, Silk Road archeological sites, other historical/cultural landmarks, and so on, so-as to bring to life and harmonize with the spirits of the ancient and modern Silk Roads, for all things are and will be as formed by the past, funneled through the now, and drawn into the future based on our hopes, dreams, creativity, will power, ability to learn and cooperate, and relentless efforts.
Orthostats of Herald’s Wall 900-700 BC Military Parade, Archeological Museum, Istanbul. Photo by G. Brundage
That’s me Coach Stone looking around Dayahatyn Caravanserai – Ancient Silk Road trading center, fortress and hotel in Turkmenistan. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it’s a universe; a time portal of infinite dimensions. What treasures are hidden away within and around these ancient Silk Road sites? For those interested mere gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires, probably a lot. For me however, there are infinite riches stored in the wisdom of ancient civilizations if we can perceive it and learn from it.
The articles and photos from the first many years of this tour were first published in Taekwondo Times magazine (USA). Then I collected those articles and published them in a book titled: Silk Road Taekwondo Quest, available on Amazon.com. A free PDF version (along with some articles and other Korean culture related books) can be downloaded from the Downloads page on the menu above.
Please take your time when you explore this site. There are opportunities for many kinds of collaboration. See Menu above for details.
I first moved to a Silk Road country in 1992 (Malaysia), and traveled extensively around South Asia before moving to South Korea in 2001. After seven years there I moved to China for 12 years, and have been in Thailand for a little more than a year now, mostly teaching in public schools. At this time I’m visiting Taekwondo and other martial art schools around the country, with plans to visit nine more countries in the next year or two: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan.
Though COVID-19 did prevent my travel for a couple of years, during that time I collected articles I previously published in Taekwondo Times Magazine and published them in a book now available on Amazon.com and other outlets.
Visitors to this site are cordially invited to download a free PDF copy from the “Downloads” page on the menu above. It is also hoped visitors to this site will visit the Collaboration page and see the many ways they can work with this now seven-year project.
2015 to Infinity!
Silk Road Taekwondo Friendship Tour 