Shaolin Temple is situated on Shaoshi Mountain of the Songshan Mountain Range in Henan Province, about 80 km from the provincial capital of Zhengzhou. The temple is surrounded by thick forest. Hence its name: "Shao" (少) is the name of the mountain and "Lin" (林) means "forest" in Henan dialect.

In the year 495 emperor Xiaowen ordered the construction of the temple in honour of the Indian monk Batuo. It served as a refuge for Buddhist monks and because of its remote location it was soon to be forgotten.

In 523 another Buddhist monk from India came to Shaolin – Boddhidarma (Da Mo). He spent nine years meditating in a nearby cave and did not allow anybody or anything to disturb him. This allowed him to formulate the principles of Chan Buddhism. In order for the monks to be physically able to withstand their religious lives he taught them special exercises and breathing techniques. In doing so, he is said to have laid the foundations for the martial arts of Shaolin. However, his real role in their creation is disputed because of a lack of proof. Yet he is the undisputed founder of Chan Buddhism, which gained great importance in the following centuries in China and which spread even further to Korea and Japan (where it is known as Zen).

During the Tang dynasty, the temple had a prosperous period. When emperor Tai Tsung (Li Shih-Min) got into peril one day, 13 monks came for his rescue. As an act of gratitude he offered them to enter his services - which, however, they rejected. The temple was then awarded the privilege to train a group of warrior monks for the protection of the temple. In those days, more than 1000 monks lived at the Shaolin Temple, about 500 of them warrior monks.

In 1674 another emperor needed assistance from Shaolin. 128 monks came for the help of emperor Kangxi of the Ching. This time, however, their services did not pay off as good. The emperor got convinced that an independent institution such as the Shaolin Temple with men who possessed such martial skills was a great danger. He sent an army guided by a rouge monk. The temple was burned to the ground and many monks were killed. Not until the end of Kangxi's reign was the monastery slowly rebuilt.

In 1928 the Shaolin Temple was caught between the frontlines of the warlords Fang Chung-Hsueh and Hsi-Yousan. Fang Chung-Hsueh used the temple as his base. But when he was attacked by general Hsi-Yousan he fled the temple together with the monks. The general who was quite disappointed then had the monastery burned down. It is said that many priceless scriptures about Buddhism and the martial arts were lost in the flames.

After a couple of difficult decades, the monastery was restored in the 1980's, funded by the Chinese government. Monks were allowed to practise again and many activities were undertaken in order to revive the Shaolin culture.

Not only is Shaolin the cradle of all martial arts, it is also a very special place of religion, philosophy and sciences. A great many famous persons have come from Shaolin and in the course of the centuries it has always had a significant influence on the political and cultural life in China. Its high level of education (not only in the field of martial arts) as well as a maximum of moral integrity make Shaolin absolutely unique.