Lineage & Legacy
“Sö-Pa means compassion for the aggressor.”
The Sö-Pa School of Tai Chi Chuan was founded by Master Thomas Buchi Shihan, 5th Dan, a devoted martial artist whose journey began in 1986 in Switzerland and expanded across South Africa where he studied in a residential karate school for 11 years, under the mentorship of Kancho Hugh St John Thompson and Hanshi Denis St. John Thompson.
Alongside his deep training in Karate-Do, Kushido, and meditation, Master Thomas also encountered Tai Chi Quan at a karate school in Kapstadt, South Africa. Through years of immersive training at the Honbu Dojo and the farm in Stilbaai, he cultivated not just a martial path but a Way of Being. Meditation, breathwork, and inner stillness were woven alongside disciplined form and intention.
Master Thomas passed on the Sö-Pa School in Aberystwyth to a trusted student and practitioner; Si Heng (older brother) Steve Foy.
