Shaolin history

[Hung gar]

I need two credible sites on the history of shaolin for a school project pleas help

[ittokaos]

Everyone has their own story on Shaolin history. Different lineages and the differences between North and South. You have Kempo guys saying one thing and Shaolin Ninjas(!?!?) saying another.

It is next to impossible to get an acturate representation of what shaolin history really is. The basics are always there(Damo,Five animals,shaved heads,etc..) but if you are looking for something really detailed you are out of lick. At least until Meir Shahar's book comes out(2008? 2009? 2015?).

I hope this helps(probably not too much tho)

WF

[GeneChing]

I corresponded with him a few weeks ago and he said I'd have an advanced copy in my hot little hands in the next few months.

Hung gar, try this site.

[kal]

That's great news about Prof Shahar's book.

Do you know if it's going to look at the existence (or non-existence) of a Southern Shaolin Temple?

This is something that has intrigued me for a long time, but it's very hard to find a straight answer about.

[GeneChing]

It doesn't go into the southern Shaolin Temple at all. Meir did some preliminary research on it as a potential follow up, but I'm not sure that he'll pursue it. We were both looking at it as this huge research quagmire. After one trip south, he got a little inspired and said he found some stuff of interest. But I think he's going to tackle Nazha next.

[kal]

That's a shame, but nonetheless I'll still be buying his book.

Just out of curiosity, do you believe there was a southern temple?

Is it part of the oral history of many arts? (wing chun, hung gar etc.)

[GeneChing]

In Shaolin history, there's discussion of subsidiary temples. The five elders myth is a bit more controversial.

[NJM]

I need two credible sites on the history of shaolin for a school project pleas help

www.wikipedia.org

[Sal Canzonieri]

I need two credible sites on the history of shaolin for a school project pleas help

My articles are used as references in everyone else's articles, so you can look there, it was written after 20 years of research.

There are a load of Shaolin history in the articles here, look through all of them in case you miss something:

http://www.bgtent.com/naturalcma/index.htm

[Yao Sing]

In Shaolin history, there's discussion of subsidiary temples. The five elders myth is a bit more controversial.

It makes me wonder about a link between the Shaolin Temple and the Hualin Temple in Guangdong. It was recently discovered and is being (or maybe done by now) restored. I'll post some pictures when I get them digitized. I have a picture of the wall painting showing the original layout of the Temple.

When Master Chan Pui visited there in 1998 they mentioned that Damo stopped there before going on to Shaolin. One of the 500 gold Lohans is said to depict Marco Polo as well.

Maybe that's the basis for his title of 33rd Generation Successor to Shaolin.

So, would a southern Shaolin Temple also be called Shaolin or something else?

[r.(shaolin)]

Ok, since Sal posted his stuff here is a bit of my work :-)

http://www.shaolinwushu.com/DragonsofShaolin.pdf

Its a pdf of three Appendixes from a limited edition book I wrote a number of years ago.

Please note this is copyrighted material and if you quote from it please acknowledge the source.

cheers,
r.

Be warned its a 21 meg file.

[GeneChing]

It makes me wonder about a link between the Shaolin Temple and the Hualin Temple in Guangdong.

I'm delighted to find a Hualin reference here. Good on Yao Sing for prepping this for us 9 years ago.

Cultural Diplomacy: President to visit Buddhist temple with links to India
Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan Times, Guangzhou | Updated: May 24, 2016 20:30 IST



President Pranab Mukherjee is received by Vice Governor of Guangdong He Zhongyou as China's Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Liu Zhenmin looks on, upon his arrival at Guangzhou in China on Tuesday. (PTI)
Focussing on ancient Buddhist links is a customary part of India-China cultural diplomacy during high-level visits even if bilateral ties have generally been less-than sacred in modern times.
President Pranab Mukherjee will carry forward that tradition when he will visit the Hualin temple in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province on Wednesday afternoon.
Legends claim that a Buddhist monk from India came to the region in the 6th century and spread the ideas and philosophy of Buddhism.
The monk, Bodhidharma, is also said to be responsible for starting the physical training of the Shaolin monastery monks, leading to the creation of the martial art, Kung Fu.
It is said the temple had a pagoda named after King Ashoka. But it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution decade of 1966-76. But the repeatedly rebuilt temple remains an example of religious links between the two countries.
To reinforce the link, Mukherjee will officially install a made-in-India bronze statue of Buddha, weighing some 40 kg and four feet in length in the temple.
The statue was specially made months in advance for Mukherjee to install it in the Hualin temple.
Mukherjee’s temple visit is part of a long tradition of Indian leaders visiting Buddhist shrines in China.
The last Indian President to visit China was Pratibha Patil in May, 2010, and she too had her Sino-India Buddhist moment.
When HT visited the temple in Luoyang on Sunday, hundreds of domestic Chinese tourists were thronging the sprawling and efficiently maintained stupa built on the lines of the Sanchi stupa in Madhya Pradesh.
The Guangdong provincial government will gift Mukherjee a delicately crafted ceramic statue of the Chinese traditional god of longevity, Shou Xing, who is painted or sculpted holding a peach, considered symbol of immortality.
The gift is meant to symbolise longevity not only for Mukherjee but also for India-China relations.

[Semillas]

Hung Gar. Different lineages, different styles, different histories. According to my Shifu, the style that we practice comes from Emei Shan, and it is a system Shaolin. However, there are few people that recognizes it.

[David Jamieson]

Hung Gar. Different lineages, different styles, different histories. According to my Shifu, the style that we practice comes from Emei Shan, and it is a system Shaolin. However, there are few people that recognizes it.

Most people don't recognize styles they don't do themselves.

People who have practiced Kung Fu for some time can probably identify the core of a style being seen because by the time you've been doing Kung Fu for 10 years or so, you've likely encountered a lot of other styles by way of your own curiosity.