Shaolin
Temple
The world-famous
Shaolin Temple is located at the foot
of the Wuru Peak of the Shaoshi Mountain
of Dengfeng, Henan Province. It was
first built in the nineteenth year
of the reign of Emperor Taihe of the
Northern Wei Dynasty (495 A. D.) Then
in 527 AD, Bodhidharma, an ancinent
Indian monk, came here and started
the Zen sect, which is regarded as
the "ancestral (first) court"
of the Chinese Buddhism. The whole
structure was rebuilt in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties occupying a floor
space of 30,000 square meters.
In the temple the Hall
of Thousand Buddhas is the most magnificent
inside which well preserved are gigantic
murals of "500 Arhats Worshiping..."
that cover the east, west and north
wells. On the brick floor of the hall
two rows of depressions can be seen;
these are marks left by Shaolin monks
who over long years practiced in it
martial arts, the well- known Shaolin
Gongfu, which originated right here.
The architecture of the halls, pavilions,
pagodas and other structures in Shaolin
Monastery is a representative of an
important style in the history of
Chinese architecture. Another valuable
and precious relic well kept is the
more than 300 inscribed stone tablets
left over since the Tang Dynasty.
About 300 meters
west of Shaolin Monastery is the Forest
of Stupas, the largest group of stupas
in China, serving as the tombs for
Shaolin monks after they die. The
existent over 220 stupas of brick
and stone were built in the dynasties
of Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and
Qing. The stupas, usually of 3-5 stories,
are no more than 15 meters high, and
vary in shapes of quadrangle, sexangle,
cylinder, cone, parabola, straight
line, bottle, circle; some are made
of one piece of rock. On most of the
stupas there are bas-reliefs and inscriptions.
The stupa forest is representative
of the artifacts of the successive
dynasties and a treasure house of
ancient architecture and sculpture
of China.
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