History

The Shaolin Temple

The Shaolin Monastery or Shaolin Temple, is a Chan Buddhist temple at Song Shan in DengFeng City Henan Province of the People's Republic of China. The monastery was built by the Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty in AD 477, and the first abbot of Shaolin was Batuo, also called Fotuo or Bhadra (the Chinese translation for Buddha), an Indian dhyana master who came to China in AD 464 to spread Buddhist teachings. Long famous for its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu, it is the Mahayana Buddhist monastery perhaps best known to the Western world.

Name

The Shao in "Shaolin" refers to "Mount Shaoshi", a mountain in the Songshan mountain range. The lin in "Shaolin" means "forest". Literally, the name means "Monastery in the woods of Mount Shaoshi".

Early history

The Shaolin Monastery was built on the north side of Shaoshi, the western peak of Mount Song, one of the Sacred Mountains of China, by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Jiaqing Chongxiu Yitongzhi (AD 1843) specifies that this monastery was built in AD 497. Kangxi, the second Qing emperor, was a supporter of the Shaolin temple in Henan and he wrote the calligraphic inscription that, to this day, hangs over the main temple gate.

Shaolin Gong Fu

The practice of Gong Fu in the Shaolin Temple is propulsed by the practice of Chan Buddhism, it's principles and it's values.