Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/November 6, 2009

The Matukai were an organization of Force adepts who used the physical body to channel the Force. They were established in the days of the Galactic Republic, years before the Old Sith Wars, and records compiled by the Galactic Alliance indicated that the Matukai were founded by a Human female from Karvoss II who discovered her sensitivity to the Force while practicing a meditative form of martial arts. After she developed her own method of studying the Force, she began to expand the tradition, teaching others what she had learned.

Initially, the Matukai were unchecked in growth by the Jedi Council and developed into a nomadic order of about fifty to sixty members. Though the Council eventually attempted to integrate the Matukai into the Jedi Order in 580 BBY, they were unsuccessful in doing so, as the Matukai were uninterested in the ways of the Jedi. The Matukai experienced persecution by the Empire during the Great Jedi Purge, but a few of their number managed to survive and pass on their knowledge. Later, some of the surviving Matukai joined Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum, feeling that the New Jedi Order was less stringent than the Jedi had been in the Old Republic.

Matukai philosophy was centered around creating a balance and harmony between the spiritual Force and the physical body, using exercise as a form of meditation. Their training involved meditative martial arts, physical training, and somatic rituals, and they were noted for being able to develop a Force-sensitivity in many beings who were not inherently gifted with the Force. Using their bodies as a focus, they emphasized keeping oneself clean and strong, purifying oneself through physical activity, and avoiding the dark side. Unlike the Jedi Order, they did not use lightsabers, instead wielding a polearm weapon known as a wan-shen.