User:Mfchettri/sandbox

Shihan Pemba Tamang joined a Karate club near his home in Darjeeling when he was ten years old. After about 8 years at the club, he became the best fighter, and in the small town, everyone respected him for this. However, he realised that the Karate he was learning wasn’t the real ‘way,’ and felt insecure and not true to himself for gaining admiration from all the towns people, but not really practicing true Karate. So he decided to learn ‘real’ Karate in Japan and flew to Narita when he was 19 years old. He couldn’t speak any Japanese and knew no one in Japan. He didn’t know where to go when he arrived at Narita Airport, and had no idea about which dojo to train in. He felt anxious and worried that he had made a bold move by coming to Japan, but after he settled and did some research, he found the JKA. There he was taught by several instructors such as Asai, Abe, Ueki, Tanaka, Osaka, Yahara, as well as other JKA instructors. When he first entered the JKA hombu dojo as a young man, he announced to Tanaka sensei that he would like his black belt in two months he hadn't planned that thirty years later he would be still in Japan, with the 8th degree black belt and a World Championship medal in the bag.

Originally he thought that he would go back to his country after acquiring the black belt, but through hard training everyday he slowly began to realise that there were bigger dreams than just gaining a black belt. Watching all the top instructors inspired him to enrolled in the infamous kenshusei course under Sensei Nakayama and was the first foreigners to graduate. Though after seeing them train, he was very afraid to join, and also he was 26 years old, which was seen as being quite old at that time. Usually students were recruited from universities, but Sensei Yahara and Sensei Asai acknowledged his application to take the course. The course training was deeper, harder and more detailed, each technique was broken down for the students to understand, and they were physically conditioned so their bodies were able to do what they were being taught. Emphasis was also placed on studying techniques in a more academic way, to understand the theory behind the action. Kumite was particularly tough, he was blooded almost every day. This was done to highlight the weakness in kumite, but also to build spirit and accept the emotions that associated with fear. In the first year, Sensei Shoji, Asai, Ueki, Tanaka, Abe and sometimes Sensei Nakayama took the training, in the third year, Sensei Osaka and Yahara joined.

After graduation he continued to instruct at the hombu dojo in Tokyo until the ensuing split. With allegiances split, he joined the KWF (Karate-nomichi World Federation) and played an important role in its development. Three years later, he decided that his love-hate relationship with Tokyo had to come to an end and decided to move his family to the beautiful mountainous setting of Kabuchizawa, a 2 hour drive from Tokyo, which compared more closely to his native homeland near the Himalayas. He was contemplating a quieter life in Karate, until few years back, when he was invited by the NSKF (Nihon Shotokan Karate-Do Federation) to become their chief instructor. The first time a Japanese Karate organization had bestowed such an honor on a non Japanese