S H A O L I N, China, March 26 -- The warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple have been perfecting and passing on their martial arts skills for 15 centuries. But not even the wisest of monks could have ...

Kung Fu's first home is hard to kill. Since it was built in 495 AD, Shaolin Temple, the original home of kung fu and Zen Buddhism, has been attacked and nearly destroyed multiple times. It's survived, ...

The hushed silence that descends over the old courtyard inside the Shaolin Temple carries the expectation of something magical. Abbot Shi Yongxin, a rotund Buddhist monk with a shaved head and a ...

First film to use famous name officially in 28 years By Jonathan Landreth, The Associated Press SHANGHAI — “Shaolin” is the first movie in 28 years sanctioned by the famous kung-fu temple of the same ...

MOBILE, Alabama — For the last 24 years, the Shaolin Institute Summer Training Camp, under the direction of Grand Master Shi DeRu, has helped its students improve self-confidence, focus and discipline ...

This story appears in the March 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine. The master spent his last day of life wrapped in a quilt stitched by his wife, his rasping, irregular breaths filling the ...