Shaolin Bias

[Chinwoo-er]

Considering this forum has little progress, I thought I should just spark things up.

I was thinking, this Forum is intended for "Shaolin" right ? as it was intended in the title. But why is it so bias towards the Henan Shaolin. It is stated in the intorduction to this particular forum that this room is for the henan style. I mean, there are 5 Shoalin temples, at least 3 of those has legit styles. so why is this forum so bias towards just the henan one ?

[respectred]

maybe because henan temple is the most popular, or maybe because not too many people know anything about the other temples. i sure don't, but if someone were to start some topics about them i'm sure i'd find them quite interesting. any new information is good information to me. :)

-matt

[joedoe]

I guess the Henan temple is supposed to be the original so it is focussed on more. There is also debate as to the legitimacy of the other 'Shaolin' temples.

Either way it doesn't really matter - what should be discussed here is the Shaolin arts, not the semantics of a location.

[Brad]

5? I know of Fukien and Henan...what are the others?

[Chinwoo-er]

I am pretty certain that people here already knows the details of Fukien and Henan like the back of their hand. So I won't waste the calories of typing about them.

The other legit one is the Hebei Shaolin. Commonly known as Chongzhou Sil Lum / Chuanjiao shoalin. I would give a rough guess ( please note this is a GUESS, and it could very well be much much more ) of around about 100ish empty hand forms, 50ish weapons, 20ish internal power and about 20ish sparring. It was said that in the past, there is over 300 in total. Obviously, when you count up the ones I have listed, I must have missed a few.

Then again, it is split into various styles. All MA which is within the Chuanjiao area is classified as Chuanjiao Shaolin arts. That includes Mizong ( the main one ), Baji, Louhan, Yanqing, Tantui, Erlang, Xingche, Gongli,

[GreyMystik]

there are varying opinions and disagreements on whether or not there were several temples or not. obviously the hunan temple is the one that we know for sure existed and is substantiated. i don't think anyone argues this that i am aware of. the other ones, well... speculation at this point.

[Chinwoo-er]

WHAT ????? Are you to tell me no one trains in Chungzhou shaolin ??

Now I am hurt.......:o

[GeneChing]

Bak Sil Lum is a popular topic and we get some overlap from the other shaolin influenced styles. It's just that the Hena Shaolin Temple is such a hot topic.
I would love to hear more about he other shaolin temples. Please go visit one and bring us back some news....

[Chinwoo-er]

But i think that the other two was opened for attract tourists by the PRC

[GeneChing]

Songshan Shaolin at Henan has been demonstrating for tourists as a means to generate donations for 400 years. So the PRC is only responsible for an eight of Shaolin's tourism. The southern temple has been reconstructed near it's original site and promotes tourism. Not sure about the others...

[Chinwoo-er]

Acutally, this thread was more inclined to look at the fighting arts of the temple........