Up Shaolin (少林寺) And Back Down From 三皇寨
Posted On Saturday, September 12, 2009 at at 9:36 PM by Alvin
The Shaoin Temple (少林寺) had been famous right round the world for its numerous martial arts skills and its respected monks, so we kept our expectations (really) low to avoid the hype and hopefully enjoy the site. We were not disappointed.
As we arrived to the nearest town Deng Feng (登封市), we were surprised to find more than 50 martial arts colleges dotted around town; each with numerous students decked out in smart sports uniforms (mostly teenager boys we noticed) lifting weights, going through their martial arts routines, running around the large training grounds, performing impossible stretching exercises and just generally keeping themselves fit - all looking serious and professional and we sensed ambitions in them.
The Shaolin Temple was as expected, not as dignified (莊嚴) as we would have liked to imagine (you know, with solemn-looking high-ranking monks mumbling Buddhist chants, each effortlessly disguising their supreme martial arts depths and so on). However, the whole visiting experience was "saved" by the 30 minutes live martial arts performance that included incredible demonstrations of the well known styles such as the praying mantis, snake in the tiger shadow and the famed 18 weapons (十八般武藝).
After visiting the Talin (塔林) where respected high-ranking Shaolin monks were buried, we cabled up the back bone mountains of Shaolin - 嵩山 and spent 3 hours visiting the backend of Shaolin - 三皇寨. The scenery was awesome as this mountain range gave us a geographical perspective of the Shaolin Temple that we found obscured in the Temple's commercial front entrance. As per usual regarding tackling any Chinese mountains, love them or hate them, we had to negotiate some 3,000 steep well-paved staircases (好漢坡 ) on our way down this famous mountain. The views were superb and we thoroughly enjoyed the hike down.
As we arrived to the nearest town Deng Feng (登封市), we were surprised to find more than 50 martial arts colleges dotted around town; each with numerous students decked out in smart sports uniforms (mostly teenager boys we noticed) lifting weights, going through their martial arts routines, running around the large training grounds, performing impossible stretching exercises and just generally keeping themselves fit - all looking serious and professional and we sensed ambitions in them.
The Shaolin Temple was as expected, not as dignified (莊嚴) as we would have liked to imagine (you know, with solemn-looking high-ranking monks mumbling Buddhist chants, each effortlessly disguising their supreme martial arts depths and so on). However, the whole visiting experience was "saved" by the 30 minutes live martial arts performance that included incredible demonstrations of the well known styles such as the praying mantis, snake in the tiger shadow and the famed 18 weapons (十八般武藝).
After visiting the Talin (塔林) where respected high-ranking Shaolin monks were buried, we cabled up the back bone mountains of Shaolin - 嵩山 and spent 3 hours visiting the backend of Shaolin - 三皇寨. The scenery was awesome as this mountain range gave us a geographical perspective of the Shaolin Temple that we found obscured in the Temple's commercial front entrance. As per usual regarding tackling any Chinese mountains, love them or hate them, we had to negotiate some 3,000 steep well-paved staircases (好漢坡 ) on our way down this famous mountain. The views were superb and we thoroughly enjoyed the hike down.
