Monastery of Shaolin

The Monastery of Shaolin, placed in the mountain Songshan, to 65 kilometers of Luoyang, was founded by Bodhidharma, (a Hindu monk known as Da Mo for the Chinese), in the year 520. It gives Mo remained nine years in meditation, creating a new branch of the Buddhism, the acquaintance later how Zen in Japan and ch'an in China, in fact the one that has supported the tradition Buddhist with more vitality during the last centuries. Of the exercises developed by Da Mo to prevent his muscles from atrophying for the constant meditation and to be able to defend itself from the wild animals, of that time abundant in the mount, there was born a new martial art, the wushu or kung fu. The Shaolin reputation comes for the Zen one and the kung fu.

The Bodhidharma successors developed and systematized the movements created by him giving birth to to the wushu, which was realized only to strengthen the body and power to support the hard living conditions and the meditation periods in the Monastery of Shaolin. But, from the dynasty Sui, the monks had more interest in the power and the wealths than in the religion. Soon it turned into one of the richest monasteries of China. Supporting the emperors, he always accompanied the imperial China in his decline.

The best thing is to initiate the visit in the morning, since the Temple keeps on waking up fury between the Chinese. In the Dengfeng district there are 18 wushu schools with more than 6.000 pupils. Most of them will spend three years of studies in the surroundings of the temple. In the morning it is possible to see them practising outdoors, in big groups of 50, 100 or up to 200 students, with his uniforms of colors and his traditional weapon.

Along with the Temple is the Forest of Pagodas. With 230 funeral pagodas of brick or stone (according to the wealth of the disciples of the deceased monk) constructed from the dynasty Tang until our days, in them there keep the ashes of some out-standing monks. Another so rich Forest of Pagodas does not exist in China as this. None that has so big number of funeral pagodas, of so different forms and styles, and whose construction has got longer so much time in the history.

In the Monastery of Shaolin in strict sense everything has proper characteristics, related in most cases to the martial arts. As two enormous guards called "Humm" and "Aaah", onomatopoeia of the sounds realized in the combats of wushu, which liberate the entry. The Lounge of Thousand Budas, whose soil of paving stones, curved in some points for the constant blows of the monks, gives an idea of the hardness of his trainings. The Lounge of the White Garment or of the Boxers, with murals of the dynasty Qing that show different scenes of the boxing of Shaolin. Some monks fighting to clean hands, others armed with bludgeons, spears, dirks, swords. In other walls scenes of the monks rescuing the emperor, or fighting a rural rebellion. Close to the exit, the Courtyard of Two hundred Positions, called by the similar number of fighters represented in wood, presents a dozen of scenes of the history of Shaolin.

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