History
The name Hwa Rang Do is Korean for "The way of the Flowering Knights". It was named after the Hwarang, a buddist elite youth order of the Silla kingdom during the Three-Kingdoms Period, in what is now Korea. The Hwarang were, basically, voluntary child soldiers consisting of older children, teenagers, and young adults who came mostly from aristocratic families, and who were educated in artistic, academic, and martial fields of study.
In 1942, according to Joo Bang Lee, a monk named Suahm Dosa took him and his brother, Joo Sang Lee, into his home for training. Lee has provided no evidence other than his unsupported word of Suahm Dosa's existence. (Note that "Dosa" is actually his title, and it is roughly equivalent to "hermit sage expert.") They lived with Suahm Dosa at the Suk Wang Sa Temple in the Ham Nam province of North Korea, before later escaping with him to Ohdae Mountain in South Korea during the communist take over. Suahm Dosa had no formal syllabus to teach them.
After their training by Suahm Dosa, the two brothers spent some time learning other martial arts including prior existing styles such as Kung Fu, Karate, and Ju Jitsu, before they set out to create their own martial art. The brothers generated their syllabus from scratch, based on the techniques they could remember from Suahm Dosa, and then started to teach it to the public. Prior to their immigration to the United States, the Lee brothers were registered as Hapkido instructors in Seoul with no mention of Hwa Rang Do. In 1972, Joo Bang Lee moved to California, taking the World Headquarters of Hwa Rang Do with him. Joo Bang Lee currently claims the title of "Supreme Grand Master" of Hwa Rang Do; it is believed by his adherents that he is the 58th successive holder of the Do Ja Nim title.
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