Reflections | How China’s Shaolin Temple survived multiple attempts to destroy it – by the Chinese themselves
Much like France’s Notre Dame Cathedral, the venerated complex has been razed and rebuilt numerous times
When the Notre Dame Cathedral was burning in Paris last month, some Chinese wasted no time in venting their Schadenfreude online.
In fairness, these jingoistic rants were roundly criticised by many, including China’s heritage and other government bodies, as mean-spirited, misguided and childish.
Named for its location in the forest of Mount Shaoshi, in Henan province, Shaolin Temple is among the most venerated religious edifices in China, and like Notre Dame and many cultural monuments around the world, it has been destroyed, desecrated, razed by fires and rebuilt multiple times.
Most of the structures in the temple complex are less than 100 years old, but the original Shaolin was built more than 1,500 years ago, in 495, by the Northern Wei dynasty’s Emperor Xiaowen for the Indian Buddhist missionary Buddhabhadra, who had arrived in China 30 years earlier.
