shaolin temple

Photo theme of the weekend was lion statues in the foreground.

It occured to me this weekend that I don’t actually know when or how I even heard about the Shaolin Temple.  I have never seen an episode of the TV series KungFu, despite once owning half of all Jet Li’s movies on DVD I have never seen the one pictured in the last post, and though I did do martial arts as a kid/teenager the style was karate not kung fu and my influences were Karate Kid and TMNT.  But despite all this, I do know that for a long time it has been a dream to visit the Shaolin Temple, and that dream came true.

Am I currently glowing because of the experience?  No.  But I am not disappointed either.  Like most sight-seeing destinations, I probably would have gotten more from it had I known more about it.  I will just have to take the opposite approach and now study up and watch every DVD I can get my hands on and say, “Hey, I’ve been there!”  There was a martial arts demonstration, and though it was just the same as every other kung fu demo I have seen, there was something cool about watching these kids, being at the place they actually live and train.  When walking through the temple there were boys in their robes walking from the dining hall carrying their lunch in small bowls.  How weird to go about your day-to-day routine as tourists wander about taking pictures.

The area is definitely a tourist attraction, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting.  However, it did seem to be mostly domestic tourists because I didn’t see any other white girls there.  The temple itself is actually just a small part of the attraction, and I am embarassed to admit I had never even heard of the pagoda forest.

Originally I thought we were going to train at the temple, and when I found out that wasn’t true and we were going to train at a school nearby, I was quite upset.  But the two hour session turned out to be fun, so I got over it quickly.  The town is almost entirely made up of martial arts schools, the largest boasts about 18,000 students.  Even the restaurant we ate lunch at was selling weapons in the back.  Anyway, turns out our teacher is part of the travelling “Shaolin Kung Fu” show which I actually saw way back when in Seattle.  I doubt he was part of it at that time, but still.

Oh, and I walked up the path of lotus flower designed stones inside the temple, which is supposed to grant you good luck and happiness for life, so if that comes true then there is an added bonus of the trip.  Although, I did also drink from the fountain of happiness at the Mizu Temple when I was in Kyoto, Japan… so I won’t be sure which deserves credit.