A handful of students. One rented hall.
The sign is no longer hand-painted and the floor is sprung. Everything else about how we teach is exactly the same.
The mat does not care who you were outside it
A ten-year-old who cannot sit still. A surgeon who has not been bad at anything since medical school. A teenager who has decided, quietly, that she is not an athlete. The dojang takes all of them and gives them the same thing: an honest problem, a person to learn it from, and no way to fake having solved it.
Technique is the slowest route, and the only one
It would be faster to teach a student to win. We teach them to stand correctly, then to move correctly, then to strike — and only then to win. Students who arrive from other schools are often surprised to be sent back to their stance. Twelve months later, they are the ones nobody can score on.
0
Years on the mat
0+
Students trained
0
Black belts promoted
0
National medals
Eighteen years, in six moments.
No single day made this dojang. These are the ones we remember.
- 2007
Nine students, one rented hall
Bikash Tamang, three years retired from the national team, borrows a community hall in Naikap on Sunday evenings and puts up a hand-painted sign.
- 2011
The first black belts
Four of the original nine grade to 1st Dan. Two of them are still on the mat today; one of them now runs the youth program.
- 2015
A building of our own
The academy moves into a permanent 320 m² dojang with a sprung floor, changing rooms and — for the first time — a wall to hang medals on.
- 2019
First international medal
Sabina Gurung takes bronze at the South Asian Championship in Colombo. The competition squad is formally founded within the year.
- 2023
Two hundred black belts
Aayush Karki becomes the 200th student promoted to 1st Dan under the Chandragiri Tigers banner, sixteen years after the first.
- 2025
Best club in the province
Two national golds, a silver, and the Bagmati Province club of the year award. Nine students on the mat that first Sunday. Eight hundred and fifty since.
Recited at the close of every class.
Not a slogan on a wall. A checklist, spoken aloud, by everyone in the room.
Courtesy
예의 · Ye Ui
Bow to the room before you enter it. Respect is the price of admission, not a reward for rank.
Integrity
염치 · Yom Chi
Know the difference between right and wrong, and choose correctly when no instructor is watching.
Perseverance
인내 · In Nae
The technique you cannot do today is a technique you have not yet done ten thousand times.
Self-Control
극기 · Guk Gi
Power without restraint is not skill. The stronger you become, the softer your hands must be.
Indomitable Spirit
백절불굴 · Baekjul Boolgool
Stand up. However badly you were beaten, however many times. Stand up.
Watch a class. Decide after.
Sit at the edge of the mat on any evening. Nobody will sell you anything. Then, if you want, take off your shoes.