The Shaolin Monastery ( ) is a Ch'an Buddhist temple at Song Shan in Henan Province of what is now the People's Republic of China. The monastery was built by the Emperor Hsiao-Wen in AD 496, and the first abbot of Shaolin was Batuo, (also, Fotuo or Bhadra (the Chinese transposition of Buddha), an Indian dhyana master who came to China in AD 464 to spread Buddhist teachings. Order of the Shaolin Ch'an (2004, 2006). The Shaolin Grandmaster's Text: History, Philosophy, and Gung Fu of Shaolin Ch'an. Oregon. Long famous for its association with Chinese martial arts, it is the Mahayana Buddhist monastery perhaps best known to the Western world.