History and Name Part 2
Shàolín Temple was built in the Northern Wei Dynasty (495) and so is over 1500 years old. It is a Buddhist monastery and so has been teaching and promoting Buddhism all this time. It is located on Songshan 嵩山– Song Mountain, Dengfeng City 登封市, Hennan Province 河南省.
In 495 the Northern Wei Emperor, Xiào Wén Yuán Hong 北魏孝文帝元， built the temple as a place where the Indian Buddhism Monk Bátuó 跋陀 could settle down and teach Buddhism, as the Emperor was a great believer in Buddhism. Bátuó taught a lot of people and translated a great many Buddhist scriptures and book. In 527, another Indian Buddhist monk, Dámó 達摩 – Buddhidharma, came to the temple to teach Chan (Zen) Buddhism and some Indian exercises and from then, the monks of Shàolín started to do more exercise to promote good health. A lot of people came to the Shàolín Temple to become monks, and a lot of them had some martial arts skill. Then the monks started to develop their own martial arts skill which related to Buddhist philosophy, health and medicine. Eventually, a whole system was developed. After many, many years it became a system that included Buddhism, Philosophy, Religion, Kung Fu, medicine and meditation.