Shaolin Temple, Luoyang
Shaolin Temple is established among flourished forests in Mountain Song, so it attained the name “Shaolin”. The Shaolin Temple has many legends and mysteries surround it. The origin of martial arts and the origin of Kung Fu surround the vague mysteries of the Shaolin Temple and the Shaolin Monks.Shaolin Temple was established in AD 495 by Emperor Xiaowen in order to receipt the Indian monks. Batuo, an Indian monk, came to Luoyang, the ancient capital, 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, who translated many Buddhist works and had a few hundred followers there.
Shaolin Temple is well-known for its Zen and Wushu. It has been made great reputation in Sui and Tang Dynasty; In Song Dynasty, the Shaolin Wushu has come into being a unique system, called “Shaolin Faction” and until Ming Dynasty, Shaolin Temple has held over 2,000 monks at its peak, being a world famous Buddha Temple. But martial arts were forbidden during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Even with the protection of solder-monks, Shaolin was severely damaged by fire a few times. The largest fire set by the army of Shi Yousan in 1928 destroyed most of the buildings of Shaolin Temple.There are many noted relics at Shaolin. 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 the forest of pagodas. The oldest one was from the Tang Dynasty. The pagodas are the tombs of the celebrated Shaolin monks. The Shaolin martial arts are an important part of the relics.
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