Si Hing Te Horipo Karaitiana visits Shaolin Temple.

[Awatea Piripi Edwin]

Shaolin Temple, Mount Shaoshi

In June 2009 I was fortunate enough to visit the Shaolin Temple with my partner Bobbie Cornell, she thought it would be a great surprise birthday present! The Shaolin Temple is iconic with Kung Fu and on my global ‘must see & experience’ list.
It is located in the Henan province of China, its sits under Mount Shaoshi, one of the sacred mountains in both Daoism and Buddhism. The shào in "Shaolin" refers to "Mount Shaoshi", and lín means "forest". With sì, the name literally means "monastery/temple in the woods of Mount Shaoshi".
We visited the cave where Bodhidharma (also know as DaMo), a Buddhist monk from India who was said to have meditated for 9 years on Wuru peak on Mount Shaoshi, and was credited with the transmission of Zen Buddhism into China and the creation of Kung Fu.
The Shaolin Temple site is quite a large complex covering over 57,600 square meters. It reminds me very much of our Marae/ Kaika concept back home in Aotearoa and connection between the Heavens (Raki-nui-o-te-Raki) and Earth (Papatuanuku), elemental deities and the landmarks around, the concept of sacred mountains (mauka tapu) is also familiar. Ancestors (Tupuna/ Tipuna), guardians (kaitiaki) and lower level deities (taniwha) are represented visually in the temple complex and surrounds - the inter-connnectiveness of the spiritual, nature and physical worlds is evident.
For me, a site like the Da Mo cave is very much a sacred place, a waahi tapu, likewise the famous Pagoda Forest is a graveyard (urupa) for many ancestors associated with the Temple and surrounding areas.
There are also female only monasteries and we visited one a few miles from the Shaolin Temple, and ate at the traditional vegetarian restaurant there which is now part of the complex.
My observation of the area and Temple is that it is a mix contrast of ancient/ modern, traditional/ commercial, extremes and not much in between.
Martial arts styles present were Shaolin Kung Fu, Shaolin Boxing and Wushu Chan. I’m not overly familiar with these styles, but as an observer they seemed quite physical, requiring amazing flexibility and often acrobatic movement. Relative to our style of Wing Chun it’s much less flamboyant to say the least. Relative to Ue Kaha the similarities are in the connection of movement, form and intent. They also trained with a wide range of weapons from the simple staff, swords, unusual flails to the signature ‘monks spade’.
While there I learnt part of a sword form and there were several overseas students training within the schools there. Most of the students were children from 6 or 7 years of age up to young adults. The schools provide dormitories school for accommodation and students would stay for a few weeks to a couple of years. The old master who we had training with actually had dorms within his 3 story typical concrete village home where many of the students stayed.
We went to a large outdoor show that used the mountains as the natural set, the show was quite theatrical and visually quite spectacular, a must see if visiting. Literally hundreds of ‘actors’ perform with stunning lighting, sound, and projected visual effects. There are daily ‘kung fu shows’ and we watched as the young students demonstrated free forms and weapons demonstrations, including the throwing and piercing of a glass sheet with a needle to burst a balloon on the other side.
On the days we were at Shaolin there was a large outdoor tournament taking place with a couple of thousand young people all competing in a number of rings, including two free fighting, one with kicking only, one with punches and strikes and arm grapples only, one with prescribed forms both empty hand and with a wide range of weapons. To experience this was quite amazing and apparently only happens once a year.
All in all a great experience, for further information on Shaolin Temple check it out by searching on www.wikipedia.com . Let me know if you are planning a trip to the Temple.

For pictures of Te Horipo's trip to Shaolin check out the photo's section of this site.

Te Horipo Karaitiana is a senior member of Man Sau Gwoon and began training with Awatea in 1999, he has also trained with Master Kevin Earle (Awatea's teacher). He is also the most senior of Awatea's students in Ue-Kaha No Roto Warrior Systems and holds the title of Pou-faka-ako. In February 2010 Awatea and Te Horipo will introduce regular classes in Ue-Kaha No Roto to the public for the first time.