Rebuilding the North Shaolin Temple - 重建北少林寺

Please donate 捐赠 to help rebuild the Northern Shaolin Temple in China

How’s your Karma doing these days?

Martial Artists who respect the Shaolin Temples and anyone else who has earned their money honestly are cordially invited to donate money to help rebuild the Northern Shaolin Temple. It was obliterated during the wars here and is currently being rebuilt. Only one ancient white tower survived the slaughter.

Only two of five main buildings have been rebuilt during the past few years and a huge amount of expensive work remains to be done. "How much?" I asked Songshan Shaolin accountant Mr. Hu recently. "About two billion Yuan" was the answer.

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Rebuilding the Northern Shaolin is a multi-million dollar project and will take at least three to five years to finish. 

How you can help

Donations (捐赠) to the reconstruction of the North Shaolin can be made to the following account:

Bank information

Receivers Name : Zhong Guo Panshan Bei Shao Lin Si
Northern Shaolin Temple, Panshan, China  中国盘山北少林寺

Bank & Branch Name:
Gonghang Tianjin Shi ji Xian Zhi Hang 
Jixian branch of ICBC Bank in Tianjin City
工行天津市蓟县支行

Account number: 0302 0966 09300 184901
Swift code: ICBKCNBJTJN 

When sending money, please also send an e-mail to North Shaolin's new Abbot, Shi Yan Pei at shaolinyanpei@163.com saying how much was sent, your name and a signature. All donations are sincerely appreciated.
 
Note 1: Upon recieving an e-mail, and notification of a desposit from the bank, Mr. Hu the Shaolin's accountant has to print the e-mail, and take it to the local (LaiGuanJu) "Government Administration of Foreign Exchange" to get the money, so the e-mail is actually very important. Without it he cannot withdraw the money.

NOTE 2: International bank transfers will probably cost the sender about $35. Paypal will charge the reciever 2%-4%.  So, Bank transfers are probably better for large donations and Paypal for smaller ones.

                                                     TOO COMMERCIAL?
Reading the western media about the Shaolin Temples in China I’ve seen a lot of complaining that the Songshan Shaolin is "too commercial.” Having visited that temple last year I’ve got to say I don’t really agree. The Shaolin Temples are huge financial undertakings and money doesn’t grow on trees. The Shaolin Temples support schools all around China, orphans, widows, the homeless, crime victims and other people in need. Religious people in general were and are the front line of social working in any nation and they need money to do their jobs.

Of course westerners that go to Songshan Shaolin can see numerous shops just outside the temple selling all kinds of Kung Fu paraphernalia, and perhaps they expect it to be a highly organized shiny new affair like an American shopping mall or something. But, heck! This is China and they do things Chinese style – which foreigners new to China often find strange.  I’ve lived in here for several years now and when I visited the Songshan Shaolin and saw all the shops outside the temple, I just thought it was normal. What’s the big issue?

Bullet holes on white tower, the sole survivor of the Battle of the North Shaolin Temple

Japanese war of aggression against China
侵华战争

For Americans World War II started in 1941. For the Chinese that war started several long, long years earlier.

In July 1937, Japan launched an all-out invasion and War of Aggression against China.

Unlike the Songshan Shaolin which was destroyed during the wars between the nationalists and other groups here in China, the North Shaolin located on Pan Mountain in the rural Ji County area far north of Tianjin was destroyed by the Japanese during what the Chinese call the War of Aggression against China. This war started considerably earlier in China than it did for the U.S. 

Excerpts from “Rebuilding the Northern Shaolin V:  Full-Steam Ahead on Construction at North Shaolin” Kung Fu Magazine (Print Edition) January/February, 2013 follows:

"Then, we took a few more photos and headed to our country guest house, owned by Wei Ming, where I’ve stayed a few times before. 

"Greeted by the owners wife we had some tea to rest after our long drive and photo/interviewing sessions. A few drops of rain fell and we all moved inside to the office were we sat around a table and continued our chat about developments in the world of North Shaolin reconstruction. Then, something rather unusual happened.

"In came great grandma, Wang Xiu Lan who sat down with us, pulled out a long traditional Chinese pipe and carefully stuffed its small bowl with tobacco I found out was grown locally.

"After a few puffs she smiled sweetly and I had to admit I felt almost overwhelmed by the joviality of this rather elderly lady.

“Just how old is she?” I asked my translator to ask her.

“Eighty three,” came back after a moment. We all did calculations for a while trying to figure out her birth date, finally concluding that it must have been 1929 plus or minus a year or two because she like most country people in China calculate age according to the lunar calendar.

"Pretty soon I was asking her about the war years around the Shaolin. I found out she moved there with her family when she was 14, or around 1943. 

"Her memories of that time seemed very clear.

“We were running and hiding all the time,” she said, “always trying to escape. When the Japanese found Chinese they killed us, because of Sanguang politics (the infamous “three cleans,” robbing, burning, and killing until clean). We often hid in caves. First they sent in dogs. If we killed the dogs sometimes they put in poisoned gas. Sometimes they came in and killed everyone. Sometimes they left thinking the dogs just got lost in the cave.  So, some of us survived.”

“Do you remember the Shaolin Temple at all?”

“No most of it was destroyed by then. Only the base of the temple remained at that time.”

"Then I asked a stupid question: “Did you lose many friends?”

"She didn’t say anything but I could see her eyes had filled with tears. Her hand shook slightly and she took another puff on her pipe.

From the conclusion of that story:

“To sum up this story, it takes more than time to heal some of the wounds of the past and though feelings and memories can be contained, they should never be forgotten. And, though attempts to rebuild some of the destruction of the past may be delayed, eventually it will be done, and done well by those best suited to do the work.”

Current working on a history of North Shaolin Temple.

Chinese resistance army, Tianjin

For the past year I've been researching the history of North Shaolin temple that was burned in May of 1942. 

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Another way to look at charitable donations is like this: “Are you happy?” There’s a lot of research on happiness that shows that doing good things for others without asking for anything in return actually increases people’s happiness. Why? It’s not so complicated; people who help others feel good about themselves. 

So, my advice is, donate whatever you can afford to rebuilding the Northern Shaolin Temple, get happy and collect some good karma in the process. The noble traditions and excellent health benefits of Shaolin Wushu and their social working here in China and abroad will be a blessing to all. Time does not cure all wounds, but a little money and a lot of work can make a big difference.

The Shaolin Temple of China is a registered non-profit organization in China.