Shaolin Temple

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Central China (华中) » Henan (河南) » Luoyang (洛阳) » Shaolin Temple (少林寺)

Shaolin Temple (少林寺)
Address:	Luoyang, Henan
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Location of Shaolin Temple

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The ancestral temple of the Zen Sect of the Chinese Buddhism, the origin of the world-famous Shaolin Kungfu, a top tourist attraction of China, also known as the "No.1 Famous Temple under Heaven".

Situated in the heart of Mount Songshan the Central Sacred Mountains, the temple is named for its location in the dense forest at the northern foot of Shaoshi Mountain, a major part of Songshan. It is 13 kilometers northwest of Dengfeng City center and about 90 kilometers southwest of Zhengzhou urban districts. Built in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the temple has been as old as more than 1,500 years, now with a total area of over 30,000 square meters. Right here Bodhi Dharma, the founder of the Zen Sect of the lndian Buddhism, sat in meditation in a natural mountain cave for 9 years and preached Zen in China for the first time, thus Dharma is also respected as the Founder of the Chinese Zen and Shaolin Temple as the birthplace of Chinese Zen. Tang Dynasty is the first golden period for the temple, with a total of 2,500 monks. The prosperity was attributed to the historical fact that 13 Shaolin monks good at cudgel fighting bravely rescued Li Shimin, a king of the Tang Dynasty who later became a great emperor in the Chinese history, and the movie of Shaolin Temple was just based on that story. So the Shaolin Kung Fu is named after the temple and the temple wins a great fame with its Kungfu.

The forest of Pagoda, located some 500 meters west of Shaolin Temple, is the cemetery of the senior monks of different dynasties. It boasts the largest complex of Buddhist pagodas in China, with about 240 pagodas of the dynasties from Tang to Qing. The pagodas vary in height, from 1 to 7 stories and with the geatest height being 15 meters; in building material, from stone to brick; and in shapes. The structures, mostly with tablet inscriptions and carvings of Buddhist images, are a great treasure of the ancient architecture and carving arts of China.