We took our first trip to the Shaolin Temple in the summer of 2002. Located within the Songshan Mountains in Henan, China, it's considered the birthplace of both Shaolin Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. Regardless of how touristy it is these days, its ancient origins and remarkable history keep it a pilgrimage site for many modern-day kung fu practitioners from all over the world.
We stayed the night near the temple and heard shouts of training coming from the courtyard outside our hostel at 5 a.m. Thousands of young students train at not only the temple, but also at numerous schools located in the nearby town, Dengfeng.
When they asked for volunteers, Tsai Yu-Hsin and I could not resist. Here we are, failing at our attempt to pull the bowl from the young monk-in-training's abdomen. It seemed pretty impressive at the time, but there was, however, a bit of a trick involved....
We took our first trip to the Shaolin Temple in the summer of 2002. Located within the Songshan Mountains in Henan, China, it's considered the birthplace of both Shaolin Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. Regardless of how touristy it is these days, its ancient origins and remarkable history keep it a pilgrimage site for many modern-day kung fu practitioners from all over the world.
We stayed the night near the temple and heard shouts of training coming from the courtyard outside our hostel at 5 a.m. Thousands of young students train at not only the temple, but also at numerous schools located in the nearby town, Dengfeng.
When they asked for volunteers, Tsai Yu-Hsin and I could not resist. Here we are, failing at our attempt to pull the bowl from the young monk-in-training's abdomen. It seemed pretty impressive at the time, but there was, however, a bit of a trick involved....