The Shaolin Temple, established around 495 AD, is the most famous temple in China. It had an important role in the development of both Zen buddhism and martial-arts (temple website). So I was very keen to visit.
The Shaolin Temple is only about 50km south from Chenjiagou as-the-crow-flies, or about 100km by road. It is nestled in a lovely valley in the Songshan (wiki) mountain area north-west of DengFeng (road G207). So we travelled from top-right to bottom-left in the photo-map below.
The most renowned sites across Dengfeng, including the Shaolin Temple, have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site under the title "Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in 'The Centre of Heaven and Earth'. Including several historic gates, temples, a Confucian academy and the Gaocheng Observatory (link).
I was very fortunate to be able to join an overnight trip organized by my Sifu June. One of June's students, Dave, had come to Chenjiagou for a few days with his girlfriend Hillary who had a brother living nearby. Hillary's brother kindly drove us all down in his car on Thursday night.
We stayed overnight in a small hotel located among the kung-fu schools in a small valley above and behind the main temple. The buildings are clustered on either side of a deep mountain creek (bottom right in aerial photo above).
I was woken about 5:30am by the sound of chanting and went outside at 6am to see groups of young martial-arts students jogging up and down the road.
It looked tough training and some of the students looked very young. If they fell behind they were scolded.
I walked down the hill towards the temple and found other groups running around a training ground.
The valley was very attractive in the cool spring dawn with blossom everywhere and with the mountains surrounding.
But this must be pretty tough place in the cold of winter or heat of summer.
After the morning run the students lined-up with their bowls for breakfast.
As you can see some were very young.
There was still no sign of the others so I walked down the hill and took some nice photos of the Shaolin temple complex in the morning light.
This is the Mountain Gate entrance with a sign saying 'Shaolin Temple'. Shortly to be thronging with tourists.
I walked back up the hill and met the others for breakfast, and we went back down to the temple. We were very fortunate to be met by June's friend Yanwei Sifu who is a Shaolin monk living at the temple. He very kindly showed us around on his day-off.
Yanwei-sifu is a very nice man with a lovely calm manner. And he was very patient and thoughtful in looking after us.
Like all the monks in the temple, Yanwei-sifu had trained in kung-fu (link) as well as buddhist scripture and calligraphy, and has to pass an annual tests to show his proficiency.
We were very lucky to be able to go inside some of the buildings that are normally closed to the public. Including close-up looks at some of the surviving wall paintings, including some very interesting ones showing famous feats of the Shaolin monks from the temple's history.
The highlight for me was the Hall of Thousand Buddhas, aka Pilu Pavilion. This is the seventh and last of the big halls on the temple's central axis. It was built 1588 (repaired 1639,1776) and is the old dojo where the monks traditionally practiced kung-fu.
This hall is one of the few buildings that survived the third destruction of the temple in 1928 (link). The walls of the hall are decorated with paintings of martial arts.
Thanks to Yanwei-sifu we were able to go inside the 500-year-old dojo...
The floor is uneven with 48 holes which is apparently from 500-years-worth of having 48 monks doing stamping movements ...
... similar to tai-chi's 'buddhist warrior attended pounds mortar' (below).
Team photo: Dave, Hilliary's brother, Hillary, June-sifu, Yanwei-sifu and me (trying not to look too big)
Just behind that building,and sort of behind-the-scenes from the temple's public areas, is the monk's quarters, kitchen and training hall.
We were very lucky to look inside and take some photos.
This was a real buzz
Shortly afterwards we had lunch with the monks in the kitchens (the usual dining hall was being used to prepare for some event)
This is the kitchens. Pretty basic as you can see. The food was simple but healthy and filling.
June eats very slowly (very healthy) so she is usually the last to finish.
After lunch we continued the tour. I think this building might be the Drum Tower which was built in 1300 and reconstructed in 1996.
The yard is used by the monks for kung-fu ,training and round the back was some training equipment.
The monks strengthen their wrists by winding a stick with a heavy weight on a string.
And condition their wrists for strikes by striking sandbags.
The next stop was the Shaolin Pharmacy Bureau next-door (built 1217; reconstructed 2004). Because of the hard training the monks often get injured so the monastery had to have good medicine. Its particularly famous for its bruise treatment which was on sale (and quite expensive).
They also sell nice tea. I bought some to take back to my tai-chi teacher in Hong King
The final part of the tour was Pagoda Forest a number of stone or brick pagodas (temples or sacred places) built from 791 AD during the Tang Dynasty through the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty. It is one of the largest pagoda forests in China. Although to be honest I was getting pretty tired by this point, and was grateful when we sat down for a break in the lovely park.
A short time later we walked down past the temple to the shop and theatre complex about 500m from the temple (top right in the aerial photo above) to see the Shaolin Monk kung-fu show. This was a spectacular display of flexibility and athleticism. Yanwei-sifu had performed in these shows when he was younger.
The most amazing thing for me was seeing a monk throw a small needle through a plate of glass without breaking it. And at one point our Dave was one of the audience members invited onstage to participate in the show.
Finally Yanwei-sifu collected some weapons and took us to the nearby park for a photo session. June had been looking forward to this and had dressed appropriately.
This was pretty cool, but I was really flagging by this point, as the early start and hard training in the days before was catching-up with me.
Dave challenged Yanwei-sifu to a sword-fight....
...but his tai-chi was no match for the power of Shaolin kung-fu....
...and the rest was inevitable.
At about four o'clock we bade farewell to Yanwei-sifu and walked back up the hill to the hotel. Groups of kung-fu students were still training hard in the exercise grounds. Dave, Hillary and her brother drove-off to continue their sight-seeing, while June and I took a taxi for back to Chenjiagou.
As we were drove back I was struck by how beautiful the Song Mountains looked and also by the literally thousands of students we could see training kung-fu outside the various schools in the neighboring towns. So the few hundred students we saw at the schools near the temple itsself are just the tip of an enormous kung-fu ice-berg!
