Word: shaolin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Despite this turmoil?or perhaps because of it?Yan Ming thrived at Shaolin. As one of the few youngsters in residence, he enjoyed the often undivided instruction of the older monks, who schooled him in the improbably paired disciplines of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and kung fu, for which the temple was famous. Daily exercises sharpened both his physical and mental control: 30-minute handstands were followed by meditation; bare-handed wood chopping was a prelude to chanting sutras. "Buddhists believe in reincarnation," Yan Ming says, "and I figure I must have been a martial artist or a monk...
...When a young state-trained Beijing martial artist named Jet Li arrived at the temple in 1980 to shoot a movie, Yan Ming "barely noticed him." Two years later, none of the monks could afford to be so aloof. Shaolin Temple, the film that made Jet Li, remade Shaolin. Suddenly the temple was swarming with visitors?both tourists and wannabe Jet Lis. The Chinese government, now aware of Shaolin's lucrative allure, resolved to rescue it from its exile in ideological ignominy. Crumbled buildings were resurrected. Secular martial-arts training academies sprang up around the temple's walls to cater...
...Initially, Yan Ming seemed Shaolin's perfect poster child. Not only did he look the part, but he was a born ham. When the monks embarked on their first exhibition tour of the U.S. in 1992, his fists were the stars of the show. But the authorities didn't realize he aspired to more than just performing. "The monk's robe I wore on stage wasn't a costume to me," he explains. "I wanted to teach people Shaolin's traditions as they'd been taught to me. I wanted to do something real." Convinced that was no longer possible...
...Shaolin is now one of China's most popular tourist destinations and impoverished Henan's most reliable cash cow. The temple drew more than a million visitors last year. For $5 they get a tour of the spruced-up shrine with a local guide well-versed in its elaborately embroidered history. Picturesquely decrepit old-timers man donation boxes at each stop along the way, and then it's off to buy tiny brass Buddhas and plastic prayer beads at stalls crowding the temple's gates. For martial arts displays, a lucky visitor might spot a young boy in a monk...
...fortunate few will be chosen by the abbot as monks, earning the Buddhist surname "Shi." They'll pay their dues at the temple by posing with tourists or welcoming state officials, and then they might become members of the exhibition troupe or go into business on their own, using Shaolin's cachet to open martial-arts schools elsewhere in China...