about shaolin

"Shaolin" literally means "young forest" and refers to the fact that the original Shaolin Temple in Honan Province was built in the midst of a new forest of cypress and pine. "Kung Fu" literally means "mastery through time and effort". Hence, "Shaolin Kung Fu" is a term that describes the full variety of martial skills that were developed, preserved and mastered at the Shaolin Temples over the last 1500 years.

The Buddhist monks at the original Shaolin Temple began their physical training in the 6th century when Bodhidharma (Chinese: Ta Mo) the 28th Patriarch of orthodox Buddhism, arrived at the Shaolin Temple and trained them in basic martial arts and the I Chin Ching (Muscle Tendon Change Classic) in order to give the monks the physical endurance to stay awake and alert through their long Chan (Zen) meditation sessions.

Over time, the monks were amazed by the benefits they experienced from these practices, and they expanded and developed their physical and martial training over the next 1500 years into an amazingly diverse repertoire of fighting styles and training methods. Wandering Shaolin priests would return with new styles and martial innovations that they had encountered during their travels, and the best of these outside developments were added to the collection of systems already practiced at the temples. Hence the Shaolin art we learn today is the living result of one and a half millennia of refinement, development and preservation by innumerable generations of Shaolin.