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| Shaolin Temple |
Shaolin Temple is probably the most famous temple in China, not only because of its long history and its role in Chinese Buddhism, but also because of its martial arts or Wushu Chan. Shaolin Temple is situated in the beautiful Songshan Mountains, which is only eight miles of Dengfeng and about 50 miles southwest of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. The Shaolin temple has many legends and mysteries surround it. The origin of martial arts, the origin of kung fu surround the vague mysteries of the Shaolin Temple and the shaolin monks. Shaolin Temple was established in 495 A.D. for spreading Buddhism at that period. Emperor Xiaowen was a believer of Buddhism so he decided to build the temple in the Songshan Mountains to house Batuo, an Indian monk, who translated many Buddhist works and had a few hundred followers there.
Damo (Bodhidharma), the legendary Indian monk, came to Shaolin Temple in 527A.D., who was the creator of Chinese Zen. There are many legendary stories about him. One of the well-known stories says he was meditating in a cave on the top of shaoshi hill for nine years, which caused his shadow imprinted on the wall. Nowadays, the stone was enshrined in one of the buildings in Shaolin Temple. Many people believe he wrote the famous 'Yijinjing', the base of Shaolin martial arts or Gongfu.
Shaolin does have a long tradition of Chinese martial arts, as the saying goes 'All martial arts are from Shaolin'. This is partly because Shaolin was located in a strategic area so they had to protect the temple themselves from wars or any invading, and partly because of the support of most emperors from different dynasties, which came after the 13 Shaolin monks once saved Li Shimin, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Since then Shaolin was allowed to have soldier-monks and it began to enjoy the reputation of “The Number One Temple Under Heaven”. During the Ming Dynasty (1368A.D.-1644A.D.), Shaolin housed over 2,000 soldier-monks at its peak and they were often used by the government to combat rebellions and Japanese bandits.
There are many noted relics at Shaolin Temple. There are over 300 ancient stone inscriptions, some of them by famous calligraphers. The large mural of 500 arhats in the Qianfo Hall was from the Ming Dynasty. There are 232 pagodas from different dynasties, known as Pagoda Forests. The oldest one was from the Tang Dynasty. Actually, the pagodas are the tombs of the eminent Shaolin monks, which are a grand view and they are the largest scale well preserved in China. |
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