Adventure in Luoyang Part VI - Shaolin Temple

The Shaolin, literally, “Young Forest”, Temple was originally founded in 495AD by the Buddhist monk Batuo, an Indian dhyana master. Batuo went to China to preach Buddhism in 464AD. The Shaolin Temple was built thirty-one years later, by the order of emperor Wei Xiao Wen (471–500AD). The temple originally consisted of a round dome used as a shrine and a platform where Indian and Hanu ["Chinese"] monks translated Indian scriptures into native Hanu languages.

The introduction of fighting skills at the Shaolin Temple has been attributed in legend to the Indian monk Bodhidharma (Damo), who went to the temple in 527AD, three decades after it was founded by Batuo. Bodhidharma allegedly spent nine years in contemplation, facing the wall of a cave on Song Mountain above the temple. On arrival at the temple he found that most of the monks were suffering from poor health. They were devoting themselves exclusively to their academic work, which they carried out in dark, cramped conditions, and were neglecting themselves physically. He taught them a series of exercises based on the movements of five animals - wuqinxi (tiger, snake, crane, eagle and monkey) to improve their levels of fitness.

Today Shaolin mystique has been dulled by blatant commercialization. It remains, however, a place of pilgrimage for many martial arts devotees, who still flock here to develop kung fu (skill).

(Source: Lonely Planet - China, DK and other various sources)

Note on the pictures:

(1) Statue in front of Shaolin Temple's gate
(2) A stone statue in front of Shaolin Temple's gate area

(3) A welcome gate in the Shaolin Temple's area
(4) Shaolin Temple - entrance door
(5) The 'Shadow Stone". Damo's shadow which was left on the cave wall when he sat and prayed toward a cave wall for nine years

(6) Pilu Pavilion with its famous depressions in the floor apocryphally the work of generations of monks practicingtheir stance work and Guanyin Hall which contains the celebrated frescoes of fighting monks
(7) Pagoda Forrest, a cemetery of 246 small brick pagodas including the ashes of an eminent monk
(8) Martial arts exhibition hall

(9) Martial arts performance I
(10) Martial arts performance II
(11) Martial arts performance III

(12) Damo's statue

(13) Shaolin Temple Exit Gate I

(14 Shaolin Temple Exit Gate II