Shaolin Temple

This past weekend we visited the Shaolin Temple and Xian. The idea started when we went to the Great Wall. Our driver’s cell phone ring tone was the theme song was Kung Fu Panda. Ever since, we have had the desire to visit the origin of kung fu and Buddhism, Shaolin Temple. The first thing we did was see a kung fu exhibition. Here’s a photo below of the exercises that small children do. I do not think I could do this even when I was young and flexible. They also showed weapons and the different kung fu styles. I loved how a lot of the styles were based on animals: monkey, crane, eagle, tiger, even frog, but unfortunately not the panda. I could not catch any of the actions through photos since they were moving so fast. There were a lot of schools around the temple, and we saw students practicing...young children with weapons. If I could describe shaolin kung fu in one word, it would be "impressive."



Our tour guide told us a great story. To summarize, there was a Chinese general, Shen Guang, who wanted to be the disciple of an Indian monk named, Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma said that if he would teach Shen Guang if he could see red snow. Shen Guang cut his arm off and his blood created the red snow. As remembrance, monks wear sometimes have only one sleeve and use one hand to pray. Actually in Shaolin Temple you can see the place for this story and the cave where Bodhidharma meditated for so long that his shadow is marked on the stone. However I heard it is a bit of a hike up and we did not have time to see it. But here's a mural on the wall of the shaolin kung fu exhibition hall.


Another interesting point of the Shaolin Temple was the pagoda forest. These pagodas are memorials for deceased monks. As you can see the grounds for the temple is really beautiful. I think if I come back to China I would definitely try to spend more time at Shaolin Temple.





-Andrea