Shaolin

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Shaolin temples (少林寺; pinyin: Shàolín Sì) are perhaps the Buddhist monasteries most familiar in the West, because of their connection with martial arts. The name "Shaolin" means "Youthful Forest" and was first associated with a temple on one of China's five holy mountains, Song Shan in Henan province.

They practised Chan Buddhism (which led to Zen Buddhism in Japan) and Pure Land Buddhism. Perhaps the most famous name associated with Shaolin is Bodhidharma or Tamo. He is said to have been an Indian teacher of Buddhism around the 4th century. Although credited traditionally with being the first teacher of Chan in China, his contributions to the martial arts have lately been in dispute; some say that elements of the spiritual content of the martial arts credited to him contain teachings reminiscent of the esoteric (Mi Tsung) and Yogacara (Wei Shih) Buddhist traditions. Despite these questions, Tamo has attained the status of a culture hero in the popular imagination, first in China and now internationally.

Several modern writers have attempted to discredit the Shaolin temple as the birthplace of Shaolin Quan but their attempts have been criticized as relying upon specious textual criticism and an avoidance of Buddhist texts and manuscripts.