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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