Our history begins late in the Ming Dynasty (around 1644) with a young Shaolin monk named Ming Guan. It is believed that he began his training at the northern Shaolin Temple, but had to flee due to ...

Meet Shifu Kanishka Sharma: the first Indian to ever train at the Shaolin Temple. Watching ‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ changed Kanishka Sharma’s life. Introduced to the film by his driver, he was so ...

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 ...

Monks from the Shaolin Temple perform kung fu at the United Nations headquarters during the 2013 Shaolin Temple Cultural Festival. Hu Haidan / China Daily Shi Yongxin, the 30th-generation abbot of the ...

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. Grip staff in right hand, kick staff, staff spins; step right and catch in crouching position. Thrust open hand to ...