At any given time of the year, busloads of tourists visit the Shaolin temple — the home of Kung Fu and Chan or Zen Buddhism. Despite the usual cacophony, inevitable wherever legions of travellers visit a world heritage site, the overall atmosphere at the monastery base is surprisingly becalming. The red and black buildings that dot the sprawling temple complex along a gentle gradient blend pleasingly with the green abundance of the Songshan Mountains that seem to embrace the monastery.

With 1,500 years of history — it was destroyed and re-built several times — the Shaolin temple is one of the most powerful exhibits of China’s soft power. Its often controversial abbot, Shi Yongxin, also called the ‘CEO monk’, has never lost sight of running the complex as an efficient, market-driven enterprise, but without losing its soul. This has ensured that the temple, in Central China’s Henan province, has had a steady revenue stream. Ticket sales have soared ever since the 1982 release of the Hollywood blockbuster Shaolin Temple, starring Jet Li in the lead role. Once inside the complex, visitors do not mind spending the extra yuan on a Kung Fu demonstration by monks.

A combination of history and folklore traces the origin of the temple to the reign of Xiaowen, who set up the monastery for Buddhabhadra, a wandering Indian monk

The mesmerising performance is the result of the practitioners’ mastery over a combination of Qigong and Kung Fu. Qigong is a set of exercises that trains the mind to focus, and energises the body. Kung Fu imparts a complementary physical dimension of speed, power and precision. A late evening sound and light show, spanning nearly two hours, is also a money-spinner. Set against the backdrop of towering cliffs, a live performance by more than 600 artists narrates the story of Zen Buddhism — a harmonious combination of Mahayana Buddhism and China’s Taoism.

History and folklore

Acknowledged the world over as a global brand, the story of the Shaolin Temple, however, seems to underplay its critical Indian part. A combination of history and folklore traces the origin of the temple to the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, who set up the monastery as an abode for Buddhabhadra, a wandering Indian Buddhist monk. Apart from spreading Nikaya Buddhism, Buddhabhadra is credited with laying the foundations for Kung Fu. Another prominent Indian figure, Bodhidharma, arguably, steered the temple’s spiritual direction towards Zen Buddhism. According to a hazy admixture of history and legend, the monk may have belonged to present day Tamil Nadu or Kerala and landed up in China on the urgings of Prajnatara, his ageing guru.

If Zen Buddhism and Kung Fu are takeaways of a Sino-Indian spiritual fusion, China’s famous Buddhist grottoes epitomise yet another trans-Himalayan enmeshment — in the field of architecture and art. The Longmen Grottoes, an hour’s drive from the Shaolin Temple, are a fine example of what is called Serendian art — the confluence of the Graeco-Buddhist Gandhara School, known for depicting Buddha in human form, and a Chinese artistic tradition. Serendian art has flourished and evolved in and around the Hwang He or Yellow River, the cradle of Chinese civilisation. Bisected by the Yi River — a part of the Yellow River system — the imposing limestone cliffs of the Longmen mountain and the Xiangshan mountain are home to a jaw-dropping 1,00,000 Buddhist statues.

In Dunhuang, an oasis town in the nearby Gansu province, there is yet another symbol of Serendian art. Hewn out of solid rock in the bone-dry Gobi desert, the Mogao grottoes, housed in hundreds of intricately painted caves, describe the epic journey of Buddhism, from its home base in India to China.