Sub-Temples
● North Shaolin Temple
North Shaolin Temple (formerly Faxing Temple) is located at the southeastern foot of Panshan Mountain in Jixian County, Tianjin City. Built in the Wei or Jin Dynasty (around 2-3 century AD), it is the earliest temple in Tianjin and the earliest Buddhist temple that can be found in the annals of Jixian County. According to historical records, the venerable master Fuyu(1201-1275) in the Yuan Dynasty took charge to build five sub-temples of Shaolin Temple in Helin (then the capital of the Yuan Dynasty), Jizhou (modern Jixian County in Tianjin), Taiyuan, Chang’an (modern Xi’an), and Luoyang (in Henan Province) respectively. The North Shaolin Temple in Jixian County is the only sub-temple extant titled with "Shaolin”.
● Kongxiang Temple
Kongxiang Temple (formerly Dinglin Temple), commonly known as Xishan Temple, is a sub-temple of Shaolin Temple in Sanmenxia city, Henan Province. It is said that the temple was built in the Yongping Period of the Eastern Han Dynasty (58-75 AD), contemporary with Baima (white horse) Temple in Luoyang, being one of the oldest temples in China. It is even better-known due to the fact that the Patriarch Bodhidarma had been buried here. In recent years, Shaolin Temple has funded to rebuild Kongxiang Temple on its original site.
● Xinmi Chaohua Temple
Xinmi Chaohua Temple, formerly Ashoka Temple, is in the center of Chaohua Town of Xinmi City, Henan Province. It was built in 147 AD in the period of Emperor Huandi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the history spanning nearly two thousand years. The temple owned one share of Buddha’s relics and ranked fifteenth among the nineteen Sarira temples in China that were said to have been built by Ashoka to keep Buddha’s relics. At present, the Religion Bureau of Henan Province has approved to resume Chaohua Temple and granted more than three hundred mu (a unit of area, 1 mu=667 square meters) of land to the temple in order to recover the former prosperous scene. With the support from all walks of life, Chaohua Temple has invited the abbot of Shaolin Temple venerable Shi Yongxin to reside there.
● Zhengzhou Xiansheng Temple
Zhengzhou Xiansheng Temple (formerly Bao’en Temple) is located in the southern suburb of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. Built in the Tang Dynasty, the temple was close to the post route and thus attracted a large number of worshippers. Then it developed rapidly and became a big public monastery till the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The temple has played a critical role in the history of Central China. It is recorded that when Emperor Qianlong went for an inspection and stayed in Bao’en Temple in 1737, Guan Gong, revered as Sangharama Bodhisattva in China, had appeared to rescue him from stabbers. As a result, the emperor bestowed the name "Xiansheng Temple" (manifestation of divinity) on the temple, and ordered to rebuild Guandi Hall for Guan Gong.
● Shangqiu Guanyin Temple
The original site of Shangqiu Guanyin Temple was in former Zhang Village (which is on the east of Si-mian-zhong). The temple boasts a long history, but was ruined by war fire in 1930. After the Cultural Revolution, thanks to the new religious policies, Buddhahood Cultivation Hall with the statue of Buddha enshrined inside was built in the present Zhang Village on Pingyuan Road, funded by Buddhist believers. Till the spring of 2007, the Mountain Gate, Main Shrine Hall, Heavenly King Hall, and monks’ dorms had been all completed. On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month in the same year, the religious assembly Three Precept-transmitting Platform was conducted at Guanyin Temple to transmit precepts to the sangha with the assistance of Songshan Shaolin Temple.
● Xingyang Donglin Temple
Xingyang Donglin Temple is situated in the Sihe Village in Jiayu Town, about 20 kilometers southeast Xingyang City, with a river on its southeast and hills on its northwest. The temple has been a sub-temple of Shaolin Temple since the ancient times. The long history and beautiful sceneries together with ancient pagodas and steles inside make it an imposing, magnificent and precious monastery.
● Gongyi Ciyun Temple
Gongyi Ciyun Temple is a sub-temple of Shaolin Temple built in the seventh year of Yongping of the Han Dynasty (64 AD). It is located in Qinglong Mountain which is in southeast Gongyi City, Henan Province. From 627 to 629 AD, venerable master Xuanzang took imperial order to rebuild the temple and later talked Dharma here, which made Ciyun Temple rise to fame. The temple was renovated many times in the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368), and was unprecedented prosperous in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). However, it was destroyed later. In recent years, Ciyun Temple has been rebuilt.
● Guandu Shaolin Temples
On Nov. 24, 2008, Shaolin Temple signed a trusteeship agreement with the government of Guandu District of Kunming City to take over management of four ancient temples in the center of the old Guandu Town: Miaozhan Temple, Tuzhu Temple, Fading Temple and Guanyin Temple. Under the agreement, Shaolin Temple will operate the temples for 20 years. As the first sub-temple of Shaolin Temple in southwest China, The temples have been rebranded as “Guandu Shaolin Temples”.
