Bodhidharma and The Shaolin Way of Life In Java

• Venoth's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Bandungan

Trip Start Feb 15, 2012 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 20, 2012 Next
Entry

  Bandungan, Central Java, Indonesia
Thursday, February 16, 2012

From our lunch place, we headed out of the city. Along the way, we saw that many places of the city was flooded and this is when I asked my guide and he mentioned that the rivers of Semarang always overflow. In fact, this is almost a daily affair and there is flooding every day in various parts of Semarang although the city lies 100 meters above sea level.

 
 

With that, we entered a highway. This is the first ever highway which I have seen in Indonesia and the quality of the infrastructure was very good , though for just a short distance.With that, we headed eastwards towards the boundary of Central Java and East Java, heading to the Temples of Gedungsongo. 

All the way, it was way up on the mountain roads. One peculiar thing I observed was that this entire stretch of road was filled with hotels and karaokes. When checked with the guide, I was informed that this was the red light district of Central Java. Hmmm...red light district in the mountainside...an interesting thing.

With that aside, we continued the journey. Along the way, after around 1 hour and 30 minutes drive, I noticed a sign on the roadside that said 'Bodhidharma Centre' and I immediately requested the driver to head there, at least just for a short visit since its just by the road.



We entered a small village road until we arrived at this monastery. This monastery was run by Buddhist monks of the Shaolin order and they teach both Shaolin Kung Fu and Meditation to the local students who congregate here on a weekly basis. 

Just for your information, Bodhidharma is a Hindu, the third son of a Brahmin King from the Kanchipuram District in Tamil Nadu who went to China in the 5th Century. There in China he was known as Da Mo and is still revered as the father of Medicine and Martial Arts. In fact, he is the Mahaguru that all Kung Fu students around the world pray to in monasteries. 



I wonder how this teachings spread to Indonesia and when exactly. I wanted to enquire more but the monastery was locked and I was told that the monks usually start their meditation at about that time. Sad that I could not enter and take more photographs of the place and also learn more of its existence and how it came about here. 

Well, as time was running out and we still had some distance to travel before reaching our next point of interest, we had to leave. However, I felt that it should be important to highlight the great effort of these monks through this entry.

Slideshow Share

Previous Entry Next Entry