The Shaolin Monastery

History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts

Meir Shahar

"Meir Shahar documents with meticulous accuracy and mellifluous prose the fight­ing monks of Shaolin monastery. The book is a powerful and compelling read." —Valerie Hansen, Yale University.

"The Shaolin Monastery is a delightful tour of one of the most enigmatic and compelling stories of Chinese religion." —John Kieschnick, University of Bristol

"Clear and lucid in style and ambitious both in scope and methodology, this book offers a fascinating window into Chinese culture, religion, and history. This is sinology at its best." —Bernard Faure, Columbia University

The Shaolin Monastery charts, for the first time in any language, the history of the Shaolin Temple and the evolution of its world-renowned martial arts. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable study, Meir Shahar considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the twenty-first century have spread throughout the world.

Meir Shahar is associate professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, Tel Aviv University.

RELIGION JANUARY 2008 6X9, 296PP, 38 ILLUS, 4 MAPS

978-0-8248-3110-3 CL S54.00S

(University of Hawai’i Press)