Sil Lum (or Shaolin in the Mandarin dialect) Kung-Fu is the most well known of the Chinese martial arts. Born in China's Hebei province on Songshan, the Sil Lum arts were originally a fusion of Indian yogic and martial practices from Kalarippayat and indigenous Chinese fighting techniques that were supposedly developed by watching animals. The patriarch of the Sil Lum temple was an Indian monk, named Da Mo, and his teachings formed the basis of the Ch'an sect of Mahayana Buddhism, which the Japanese would later develop into Zen Buddhism.
Throughout China's history, the Sil Lum Temple would be a site for controversy. Similar to western Christian traditions, many outlaws, bandits, and subversive elements sought refuge in the holy grounds of the temple, along with career soldiers forgiveness for their killings on the battlefield. In each case, these men with their varied backgrounds brought new techniques, weaponry, and fighting skills into the hallowed walls of Sil Lum Temple, and as the years passed, the curriculum evolved. Many times, the imperial court tried to suppress the temple's activities, or altogether destroy it, but the temple and its followers always managed to hold on until the Ching Dynasty. The temple was burned down, and some of the elder monks fled south to supposedly create a new Sil Lum temple.
During this era of instability, many new schools of martial art blossomed, each claiming descent from the Sil Lum temple. Northern Sil Lum, Choy Lay Fut, Hung Ga, Wing Chun, Ngor Chor (from Fukien), and Mi Jong Law Hon are just a few of the styles who trace their ancestry to the southern Sil Lum temple. Not too long after the fall of the Ching Dynasty, another great tragedy would befall the Sil Lum Temple, when Chairman Mao Zedong's Red Guards initiated their Cultural Revolution. During the fearful years of the Cultural Revolution, anyone who didn't enthusiastically embrace communism or who was caught preserving a traditional way of life was branded as "counter-revolutionary" and either tortured, imprisoned, or killed outright. Many of China's great martial artists lost their lives during this time, and Sil Lum suffered on two accounts - both as a martial arts training center and as a religious institution.
In the years following the Cultural Revolution, the mainland Chinese government found that the Sil Lum Temple was a popular tourist attraction, and worked to rebuild it, while gradually relaxing religious restrictions. The martial arts curriculum was no longer the original fighting art, however. Contemporary Wushu, a demonstration sport-oriented version of the traditional arts, became the government sanctioned curriculum. The new format allowed the government to promote a standardized form of martial art that could be popularized throughout the world in tournaments and demonstrations. The birthplace of Kung-Fu, the Sil Lum Temple, was not immune to this edict, and the temple had to either change with the times or perish.
Nowadays, the strongholds of Sil Lum martial arts may be found more in the schools of expatriate Chinese, than in the Sil Lum Temple itself. While the temple undoubtedly still harbors a few old dragons within its walls, the majority of the monks there lack the same understanding of the original fighting arts as their pre-Cultural Revolution predecessors did. During China's Communist Revolution, many Chinese fled to neighboring areas, such as Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Hawai'i, and the United States. Because of this diaspora, many Chinatowns sprang up around the world, and inevitably there'd be one or two accomplished martial art masters who would begin teaching a hand-picked group of students.