Shaolin Monastery
Chan Buddhist temple in Dengfeng county, Henan, China
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺; shàolín-sì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a Mahayana Buddhist monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin kung fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the Mount Song mountain range in Dengfeng, Zhengzhou prefecture, in Henan, China. The name reflects its location in the ancient grove (林; lín) of Mount Shaoshi, in the hinterland of the Mount Song range.
Mount Song occupied a prominent position among Chinese sacred mountains as early as the 1st century BC, when it was proclaimed one of the Five Holy Peaks. It is located some 48 km (30 mi) southeast of Luoyang, the former capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), and 72 km (45 mi) southwest of Zhengzhou, the modern capital of Henan Province.
The first Shaolin abbot, Batuo, devoted himself to translating Buddhist texts and preaching doctrines to hundreds of his followers. According to legend, Bodhidharma, the 28th patriarch of Mahayana Buddhism, arrived at the Shaolin Temple in 527 from India. He spent nine years meditating in a cave of the Wuru Peak and initiated the Chan tradition at the Shaolin Temple. Thereafter, Bodhidharma was honored as the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism.
The Temple's historical architectural complex, known for its great aesthetic value and profound cultural connotations, has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
“Shaolin Monastery” enters the record as chan Buddhist temple in Dengfeng county, Henan, China. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shaolin, Monastery and Chan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Shaolin Monastery” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Shaolin, Monastery and Chan provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q232771. VIAF identifies the subject as 123114942. The Library of Congress control number is n82106225. Authority coordinates are 34.507, 112.936. 2 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shaolin Monastery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.